By Amy Baldwin
The Associated Press

NEW YORK - Investors' love affair with technology hasn't ended. In fact, many are carrying a big new torch for the sector that burned them so badly.

Technology has been the focus of recent stock market rallies, with investors snatching up shares with a fervor that has been rarely seen - or at least, sustained - since the stocks began flaming out 21/2 years ago.

Once again, the question on Wall Street is whether a technology rally suggests that the bear market is ending - or that investors are being foolish.

"As technology goes, so goes the market," is the thinking of many investors, said Michael Murphy, head trader at Wachovia Securities. "If this market is going to rally, tech is going to have to lead the way."

But Chuck Hill, director of research at Thomson First Call, doubts that tech earnings are going to be strong enough to sustain the momentum.

"The numbers don't support it," said Mr. Hill. His firm tracks analysts' earnings expectations.

This past week, the tech-laden Nasdaq composite index rose 3.8 percent.

The two gauges less focused on technology have had less robust returns: The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.5 percent, while the Standard & Poor's advanced 1.7 percent.

Among the major indexes, it is the Nasdaq has had the strongest recovery since Oct. 9, when it and the S&P hit six-year lows and the Dow a five-year low.

The Nasdaq has bounced back nearly 27 percent from its low of 1,114.11. The S&P has recovered 17 percent from 776.7, while the Dow has advanced almost 18 percent from 7,286.27.

Technology's surge has been in spite of some negative news, such as this past week's first-quarter profit warning from chip equipment maker Applied Materials.

That's surely another sign of investors' enduring affection for technology.