MARKET CLOSE: Techs slide some more

Tech stocks continued falling Tuesday.

The Nasdaq Composite Index closed down 84.54 to 3,584.84. The S&P 500 slipped 12.03 to 1,412.14. The Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated 66.88 to 10,536.75. Inter@ctive Week's @100 Index dropped 51.15 to 4,935.41.

Renewed concerns about high valuations hurt nearly every technology sector. But trading was slow and analysts warned against making too much of Wall Street's moves before the Fed's decision on interest rates, expected May 16.

Investors also were waiting for economic data due at the end of the week and quarterly earnings reports from tech bellwethers, traders said.

PSINet (Nasdaq: PSIX) rose 2 5/8 to 26 15/16 after it reported a first-quarter loss of $1.06 a share.

Other earnings included reports from Microvision (Nasdaq: MVIS), down 3 1/16 to 30 7/8, Convergent (Nasdaq: CONV), up 3/32 to 7 13/16, and CBSI (Nasdaq: CBSI), down 3/16 to 20 7/16.

Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) at 62 3/4 prior to its earnings report, scheduled for after the closing bell Tuesday.

EarthLink (Nasdaq: ELNK), rose 13 percent, and was up 1 7/16 to 18 7/16 at midday. Sprint said it will buy 26 million shares of EarthLink.

3Com (Nasdaq: COMS) gained 4 1/2 to 48 3/16, but spin-off Palm (Nasdaq: PALM) fell 3 1/8 to 29 1/8 after 3Com announced it would repurchase up to $1 billion of stock, and complete its Palm spin-off July 27.

QLogic (Nasdaq: QLGC), down 12 13/16 to 61 15/16, continued to slide following news it will buy Ancor (Nasdaq: ANCR), down 6 13/16 to 31 3/8.

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) fell 2 to 67 13/16, Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW) was down 3 1/4 to 82 1/8. Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) dropped 5/8 to 117

IBM (NYSE: IBM), which has its annual analyst meeting Tuesday, was down 1 3/8 to 108 3/8.>