MARKET CLOSE: Dow, techs plow on

Computer and software stocks made strong gains Wednesday as the Nasdaq composite picked up 6 points to 2,742.96. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 52 points to 11,187.36 despite some ominous profit warnings.

"You are seeing a lot of nervousness in general, you had no warnings prior to July 1 and now you are getting a few warnings, which are hurting the market," said Barry Hyman, market analyst at Ehrenkrantz, King & Nussbaum.

New Era of Networks (NEON) plummeted 24 5/8 to 19 7/16 after the company said it would report a second quarter loss. Sterling Commerce( SE) also lost 9 to 26 3/4 after it warned it expects third quarter earnings below expectations.

Vantive Corp. (VNTV) plunged 3 3/32 to 9 23/32 following its warning that it would post a loss of between 12 cents to 14 cents a share in its second quarter.

Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) fell 8 1/16 to 167 1/16 ahead of its second-quarter earnings report. Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) slid 5 to 121 7/8 and America Online Inc. (AOL) added 1 11/6 to close at 122 5/8. Infoseek Corp. (SEEK) lost 1 9/16 to 50 1/4 and Excite@Home (ATHM) closed off 2 to 54 15/16.

Barnesandnoble.com (BNBN) picked up 7/16 to 17 11/16 as it joined the parade of commerce sites selling music over the Internet.

Musicmaker.com (Nasdaq: HITS) rallied up 9 15/16 to 23 15/16 in its initial public offering.

Lycos Inc. (LCOS) gained 3 7/16 to 107 1/2 after saying it had struck a deal to distribute its content on high-speed networks offered by Internet access provider RCN Corp.

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) charged up 2 3/4 to 92 5/16. Oracle Corp. (ORCL) was unchanged at 38 11/16 and Sun Microsystems Inc. (SUNW) added 1 9/16 to finish at 69 7/8.

Among widely held PC stocks, Dell Computer Corp. (DELL) rose 1 5/16 to 38 5/16; Compaq Computer Corp. (CPQ) picked up 1 1/2 to 24 7/8; Gateway Inc. (GTW) added 1 3/8 to 63 5/8; Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL) shot up 2 1/2 to 49 7/8 and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) closed up 1 13/16 to 132 13/16.

Intel Corp. (INTC) rose 1/2 to 64 3/8 and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) lost 1/4 to 16 7/8.