Investors got a pleasant surprise Tuesday evening with a Street-beating report from aluminum producer Alcoa (NYSE:AA) — and although AA finished Wednesday in the red, the beat at least set the tone for a broader up day across Wall Street that was powered by several tech stocks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 0.46% at 13,390.51, the S&P 500 gained 0.45% to 3,105.81 and the Nasdaq finished ahead 0.27% at 1,461.02.

Shares of wireless broadband provider Clearwire (NASDAQ:CLWR) marched ahead after Dish Network (NASDAQ:DISH) offered to buy the company for $3.30 per share — a 33-cent raise from the already-upgraded bid made by Sprint (NYSE:S) in December. Despite the unlikelihood of Dish’s deal going through, CLWR finished up 7% and DISH gained more than 2%; Sprint suffered a loss 0f 1.5%.

Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) shares rose more than 5% after the social network scheduled a media event for next week with merely the words “Come and see what we are building.” FB shares finished above $30 for the first time since July. Social media sectormate LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD) went over the 200 million-user mark, and investors took note by pushing shares up over 2% on the day.

Electronic storage data manufacturer Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) sprinted up more than 6% after announcing late Tuesday that revenues rose to $3.6 billion in its fiscal second quarter, beating an earlier forecast of $3.5 billion and expected sales of $3.52 billion. Hard-drive manufacturer Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC, +4.3%) also improved Wednesday.

Shares of Herbalife (NYSE:HLF) jumped 4% after Dan Loeb’s hedge fund Third Point took an 8% stake in the dietary supplement company. The move comes in the face of accusations from activist investor Bill Ackman that Herbalife is a pyramid scheme.

Heading the other way on lower revenues was Apollo Group (NASDAQ:APOL) who saw its shares fall over 7% after reporting a sharp drop in enrollment at the University of Phoenix and providing a revenue warning for the year.

Three Up

• Trina Solar (NYSE:TSL): Up 11.7% (61 cents) to $5.81.
• Supervalu (NYSE:SVU): Up 10.1 % (28 cents) to $3.04.
• Global Payments (NYSE:GPN): Up 6.1% ($2.79) to $48.86.

Three Down

• Nokia (NYSE:NOK): Down 7.4% (30 cents) to $3.75.
• Bank of America (NYSE:BAC): Down 4.6% (55 cents) to $11.43.
• Alpha Natural Resources (NYSE:ANR): Down 3.9% (40 cents) to $9.90.

Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.