MARKET CLOSE: Tech stocks resume slide

Technology stocks couldn't hold their momentum Tuesday as investors sold off leaders and fringe players alike. The Nasdaq composite fell 82 points to close at 3,685.46 while the Dow added 85 points to close at 10,606.95.

Tuesday's trading was an about-face from Monday when blue-chip issues were stagnant while the tech sector made a brief rally.

"I think it looks like some profit-taking on the Nasdaq after a very strong day yesterday," said Mike Feeney of independent research firm Wall Street Strategies. "There is a lot of concern about the prospects for the tech sector going forward. The economic numbers looked fairly benign, which is helping blue-chip stocks."

Cisco Systems (CSCO) fell 2 1/4 to 63 3/16 after announcing it will buy privately-held IPMobile Inc. in a $425 million deal designed to boost its presence in the wireless mobile market.

Nortel Networks (NT) closed off 2 1/4 to 72 and Lucent Technologies (LU) picked up 1 to 44 3/4.

Among widely held PC stocks, Dell (DELL) dropped 2 3/8 to 41 9/16; Apple Computer (AAPL) shaved off 1 1/2 to 49 5/16; Gateway (GTW) shed 1 1/16 to 54 1/8 and Compaq (CPQ) closed up 1/2 to 28 7/16.

Shares of Genuity (Nasdaq: GENU) inched up 1/4 to 8 3/8 after it topped expectations for its first public quarter. The Internet backbone firm, which was recently spun off from GTE Corp., reported a pro forma loss of 23 cents per share, assuming full conversion of its Class B common stock, smaller than First Call consensus of 26 cents per share.

Yahoo! (YHOO) shares slid 1 1/4 to 127 7/16 while America Online (AOL) and eBay (EBAY) closed off 9/16 and 1 7/16 a share, respectively. Lycos (LCOS) fell 1 5/16 to 59 5/16 and Amazon.com (AMZN) moved up 1/8 to end at 30 1/4.

Juno Online Services Inc. (Nasdaq: JWEB) saw it second quarter loss widen, but managed to boost subscriber figures and beat Street estimates for the second quarter. The company posted a net loss of $42.8 million, or $1.11 per share; First Call consensus for the quarter was a loss of $1.23 per share. Its shares closed up 3/16 to 9 1/4.

Western Multiplex (Nasdaq: WMUX) did well in its initial public offering, gaining 2 to 14 in its debut.

Intel (INTC) shed 2 1/8 to 64 5/8 while Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and IBM (IBM) closed down 5 and 1 11/16 a share, respectively.

Microsoft (MSFT) slid 1 1/8 to 68 11/16. Oracle (ORCL) dropped 2 1/16 to 73 1/8 and Sun Microsystems (SUNW) closed off 2 1/8 to 103 5/16.