Tech stocks come off canvas after plunging as investors see bargains.

A wave of bargain hunting lifted the Nasdaq composite index from a 137-point hole at mid-afternoon Thursday as investors returned to Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems and Oracle -- all battered over the last two weeks. In a comeback showing how fast Wall Street sentiment can shift, technology stocks, which only hours ago were shunned, drew buyers. The turnaround comes hours ahead of Friday's closely watched report on July payrolls. But Ken Sheinberg, head of listed trading for S.G. Cowen, said both the afternoon gains and the morning losses signify little in a market concerned about how much earnings growth will slow in the months ahead. Just before 1:30 p.m. ET, the Nasdaq rose 21.45 to 3,679.91 after falling as low as 3,521.14. The index hasn't closed below 3,600 since May. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 4.77 to 10,692.66, after rising three straight winning sessions. The S&P 500 gained 4.46 to 1,432.02. Still, more stocks fell than rose in moderate to heavy trading. Declining issues on the New York Stock Exchange topped advancing ones 1,566 to 1,132 on volume of 630 million shares. Nasdaq losers beat winners 2,341 to 1,350 as more than 1.1 billion shares changed hands.