MIDDAY MARKETS: Techs slouch

Techs slipped at midday Friday, as Emulex plunged on a press release the company says is a hoax. The Nasdaq tumbled 1.55 to 4,051.73 and the Dow Jones industrial average rose 4.39 to 11,187.13.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index gained 2 to 526.45.

The high rates of productivity growth that have helped boost the U.S. economy's performance and hold down inflation show few signs of tapering off, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said in a Friday speech.

Shares of fiber channel equipment maker Emulex (Nasdaq: EMLX) plunged 55 33/64 to 55 35/64 after someone reportedly sent out a fake press release stating that company announced would restate earnings, and that its CEO was stepping down amid an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding accounting practices.

The Justice Department is taking a closer look at the proposed merger between JDS Uniphase (Nasdaq: JDSU), down 1/16 to 125 1/16, and SDL Inc. (Nasdaq: SDLI), down 7 5/16 to 404 9/16.

A day after Razorfish Inc. (Nasdaq: RAZF), up 1 7/16 to 13 1/8, announced its president was leaving, the company's stock was downgraded by brokerage DB Alex Brown.

Mothernature.com (Nasdaq: MTHR), up 5/32 to 21/32, may be rescued by Sitestar Corp. (OTCBB:SYTE); the Internet holding company said Friday it has offered to buy the troubled dot-com for 75 cents per share in cash, or $11.36 million.

Selectica, Inc. (Nasdaq: SLTC) rose 5 7/8 to 50 1/8, or 13 percent, on news it was withdrawing plans for a secondary offering of four million shares.

On the IPO front, ServiceWare.com (Nasdaq: SVCW), priced shares at $7 each for trading Friday, the low end of its downwardly revised $7-8 range.

Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) fell 1 25/32 to 138 1/32 and AOL (NYSE: AOL) fell 1/16 to 59 15/16.

Among other leading tech issues: Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) fell 3/64 to 71 5/64, Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) fell 3/4 to 73 1/2, Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) fell 1/4 to 66 1/4, and Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) rose 1 3/16 to 85 7/8.