Other factors involved in the jump in tech shares included Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's vow to generate revenue from mobile devices and advertising and reports that, despite economic pressures, IT sales would still show an overall gain this year.

Tech stocks on the Nasdaq rose in aggregate in afternoon trading by 1.07 percent. Apple was responsible for the lion's share of that gain, in the afternoon closing in on a new record high for company as shares rose by $9.27 to $692.16. Facebook rose $1.08 to $2.27.

Industry bellwethers including Microsoft, IBM, Oracle also posted share gains.

The good news was not contained to the Nasdaq. In afternoon trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 31.45 points to 13,573.94, and the broad S&P 500 rose 5.37 to 1,465.28.

The U.S. Federal Reserve's announcement Thursday that it would launch the so-called "QE3," a third round of "quantitative easing," was widely perceived to be the immediate cause of the general run up in stocks. The Fed essentially said it would buy mortgage bonds and possibly other assets until the unemployment picture looks better. This was the first time the Fed announced such an open-ended initiative to boost the economy.