MIDDAY MARKETS: IPOs ready to join rally

A batch of strong IPOs was revving up as strong earnings from Cisco rallied techs at midday Wednesday. The Nasdaq rose 36.28 to 3,884.83 and the Dow Jones industrial average shed 68.13 to 10,908.76.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index fell 7 to 481.36.

EMC (NYSE: EMC) spin-off McData Corp., (Nasdaq: MCDT), one of the most anticipated offerings this year, priced 12.5 million shares at $28 after raising its price range to $24-$26 a share from $19-$21.

Semiconductor manufacturing firm ChipPac Inc. (Nasdaq: CHPC) plans to offer 10 million shares at $12 a piece, below its lowered range of $13 to $15 a share.

Shares of Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) were up five percent in morning trading, or 2 3/8 to 67 7/8 by midday, after the company reported better than expected earnings and revenue gains Tuesday night.

Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. (Nasdaq: VTSS) accelerated 9 1/16 to 70, or 15 percent, on the back of an upgrade Wednesday which praised the company's sales growth and upped earnings estimates.

Shares of CheckFree Corp. (Nasdaq: CKFR) plunged to 47 5/8 despite reporting a narrower-than-expected loss Tuesday night. Shares were down 3 3/4 to 51 around midday.

Internet Capital Group (Nasdaq: ICGE), down 1 5/16 to 34 1/16, announced a new chief financial officer Wednesday. The company will also report its first quarter results this Thursday.

Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) rose 1/4 to 134 3/8, Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) fell 2 1/16 to 30 7/8 and AOL (NYSE: AOL) lost 1 3/8 to 52 11/16.

Among other leading tech issues: Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW) was up 1 11/16 to 113 9/16, Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) was even at 83, Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) rose 2 1/4 to 63 7/8 and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) was up 1/16 to 74 3/16.