MARKET CLOSE: Dow, Nasdaq head in different directions

Profit warnings and lackluster earnings weighed down technology stocks Thursday as the Nasdaq composite plunged 145 points to close at 3,842.24. Blue chips gained ground as the Dow moved up 70 points to end at 10,586.13.

"What you have here is disappointing earnings or earnings warnings from companies who are traditionally buyers of technology," said George Rodriguez, senior vice president at Guzman & Co. "You also have weakness in earnings or sales growth in some of the technology names."

WorldCom (WCOM) shares fell 5 7/16 to 39 5/16 after it met analysts' estimates in its second quarter but fell short of some sales projections.

Nokia (NOK) plunged 14 13/16 to 41 after warning that its third-quarter earnings will fall short of analysts' estimates. Nokia pulled other wireless communication and chip stocks lower as Texas Instruments (TXN) fell 7 3/8 to 56 11/16 and Ericsson (ERICY) lost 1 7/8 to 18 1/2.

Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) slid 4 11/16 to a 52-week low of 31 3/8 after analysts downgraded it following its second-quarter earnings report.

Yahoo! (YHOO) shed 1 7/8 to 134 1/16 while eBay (EBAY) and Lycos (LCOS) fell 3 and 4 11/16 a share, respectively. America Online (AOL) inched up 5/16 to 53 15/16.

Infospace (INSP) dropped 13 1/4 to 34 1/2 after paying a big premium to acquire Go2Net (Nasdaq: GNET), which closed off 1/8 to 60 7/16.

Among widely held PC stocks, Dell (DELL) closed off 1 3/8 to 45 1/2; Gateway (GTW) slid 13/16 to 57 3/4; Apple Computer (AAPL) closed up 1 7/8 to 51 15/16 and Compaq (CPQ) ended down 5/16 to 28 15/16.

Symantec (Nasdaq: SYMC) lost 13 7/16 to 50 1/4 after acquiring Axent Technology (Nasdaq: AXNT) for $975 million in stock. Axent closed up 4 15/16 to 24.

Microsoft (MSFT) finished up 1 9/16 to 69 3/8 while Oracle (ORCL) and Sun Microsystems (SUNW) dipped 1 5/8 and 2 1/8 a share, respectively.

Intel (INTC) shaved off 2 to 137. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) clipped 7 1/16 to 69 1/8 and IBM (IBM) ended up 1/2 to 110 3/8.