Stocks rose Thursday after the U.S. lowered the terrorism warning level and Iraq said it would comply with a UN demand to destroy missiles.

Economic reports were mixed, with durable orders beating estimates, but jobless claims remained high and new home sales tumbled.

The Nasdaq rose 20 to 1323, the S&P 500 gained 9 to 837, and the Dow climbed 78 to 7884. Volume declined to 1.27 billion shares on the NYSE, but rose to 1.28 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led 21-10 on the NYSE, and 19-12 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 73% on the NYSE, and 72% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 54-60 on the NYSE, and 60-61 on the Nasdaq.

After the close, Novellus reiterated guidance. Marvell matched estimates.

During the day, Lucent rose 5.3% after settling an SEC probe.

Comcast surged 7.1% on better than expected results.

Intel, up 2.8%, announced a WiFi partnership with major hotel chains.

IBM, down 0.2%, teamed up with Sony on a gaming grid. IBM declined late in the day on reports that it will lay off 1,000 employees.

Microsoft, off 0.1%, issued a critical patch for Windows Me. Chairman Bill Gates is on a tour of China to boost business in that country.

RealNetworks lost 2.8% on speculation that the company may acquire rival Listen.com.

Mercury Interactive fell 5.3% on valuation concerns. EMC dropped 5.1% on a downgrade.

Qualcomm , up 2.2%, began giving away encryption software.

Retek soared 18% on an upgrade.

Avenue A, down 1%, announced a name change to aQuantive.

Market Commentary: For our free daily market commentary and technical analysis, please visit the InternetStockReport.com home page at:

http://www.InternetStockReport.com.