MIDDAY MARKETS: PPI inspires techs

Positive economic data helped hoist techs into a rally again at midday Friday as investors gained more confidence the Federal Reserve will leave interest rates untouched. The Nasdaq rose 59.36 to 3,884.92 and the Dow Jones industrial average climbed 44.57 to 10,713.29.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index fell 11 to 467.77.

The U.S. Labor Department reported that its producer price index (PPI) was unchanged overall and advanced 0.2 percent excluding food and energy prices in May.

FVC.com (Nasdaq: FVCX) rose 5 3/32 to 12 1/8 after it said Friday it will get a major investment from Vulcan Ventures, Inc., the investment organization of Paul G. Allen.

Citrix Systems (Nasdaq: CTXS) recovered slightly, down 8 7/18 to 43 1/8, or 16 percent. The company plunged 20 percent on concerns that Microsoft's break-up could signal tougher competition.

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) was up 3/8 to 69 3/16 as it moves on to the appeal after a ruling that endorsed the government's break-up plan.

Music site MP3.com (Nasdaq: MPPP), up 3 5/8 to 20 7/8 has reached a settlement with Warner Music Group and BMG Entertainment in the copyright-infringement suit filed against MP3 by affiliates of five major record labels.

The new leader of JDS Uniphase (Nasdaq: JDSU) said the optical component maker will continue its aggressive growth-through-acquisition strategy. Shares were up 2 5/8 to 112 5/8.

Shares of MicroStrategy Inc. (Nasdaq: MSTR), which came crashing down after the customer-management software company changed the way it reports revenue, more than doubled in price this week and were up 7 to 51 1/8 Friday, boosted by rumors that the company has secured a $100 million cash infusion.

Among other leading tech issues: Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) lost 1/16 to 45 1/4, Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) was up 1 1/8 to 127 5/16, Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) gained 7/8 to 64 9/16, Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW)rose 2 7/16 to 89 15/16 and Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) was up 3/4 to 83 1/8.

Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) rose 3/4 to 52 5/8, Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) gained 15/16 to 144 15/16 and America Online Inc. (NYSE: AOL) dropped 7/16 to 54 5/8.