Investors on Wall Street dared to hope yesterday that the worst may be over in the technology meltdown, and sent stocks surging upwards on the basis of earnings forecasts from key companies, including Microsoft, Yahoo and Motorola, writes Conor O'Clery in New York.

Despite a relentless procession of gloomy earnings warnings and a depressed spending environment, there has been a slight improvement in the overall situation. So far, 730 companies have warned that their results will be worse than expected, according to Thompson Financial/First Call, but this is 10 per cent lower than the 816 warnings at this point in the previous earnings season. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, which fell 7.24 per cent last week, closed up 5.26 per cent last night, while the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average rallied 237.97 points, or 2.32 per cent.

Investors shrugged off news that the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits reached its highest figure since 1992.