Oct. 5--Most big Silicon Valley tech stocks, the Nasdaq and the Dow finished higher today in response to encouraging news about the economy's service sector.

According to The Associated Press, the Institute for Supply Management reported growth in the service sector last month for the first time in more than a year.

Among Silicon Valley's biggest stocks by market value, Apple, Google, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Oracle, Gilead Sciences and eBay finished higher. Yahoo, though, declined 4 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $16.80.

Brocade Communications Systems jumped sharply after reports by Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal that the San Jose maker of data-center networking equipment could be for sale.

Bloomberg, quoting an unnamed "person familiar with the matter," said Brocade is considering a sale, possibly to Redwood City software maker Oracle or Palo Alto computer and printer maker HP. Brocade shares finished at $9.09, up $1.44, or 18.8 percent.

The blue chip Dow Jones industrial average, which includes Cisco, Intel and HP, was up 112.08, or 1.2 percent, to 9,599.75.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index gained 20.04, or 1 percent, to 2,068.15.

The Standard and Poor's 500 index climbed 15.25, or 1.5 percent, to 1,040.46.

Contact Frank Russell at 408-920-5876. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/mercspike.

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