US stocks rallied as deeply discounted technology stocks flew off the shelves on what is traditionally the start of the holiday shopping season.

Investors returned from the Thanksgiving holiday, for just a half day's trading, with a hearty appetite for high-tech stocks, rescuing a sector that witnessed five straight losing sessions due to worries over dwindling profits and election jitters. The market closed at 1 p.m.

The rally came one session after tech stocks closed at a 13-month low. Volume was strong on the Nasdaq, with more than 800 million shares changing hands, which is close to share volumes for a full trading session. Shares of the world's biggest maker of computer networking equipment, Cisco Systems and No. 2 software maker Oracle Corp led the way. Cisco jumped $2.12 to $52.68 and Oracle rose $1.81 to $24.12.