MIDDAY MARKETS: JDS Uniphase leads techs lower

A big fiber-optic deal caused the Nasdaq to fumble at midday Monday, as a big decline in JDS Uniphase led the tech-heavy index lower. The Nasdaq shed 17.74 to 4,005.46 and the Dow Jones industrial average climbed 18.74 to 10,654.72.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index fell 3 to 492.87.

Shares of Canadian fiber optics firm JDS Uniphase Corp. (Nasdaq: JDSU) plunged 14 1/4 to 101 15/16 after it announced it would acquire SDL Inc. (Nasdaq: SDLI), up 31 11/16 to 327, in a deal worth around $41 billion. Other fiber-optics makers got some ammunition out of the deal; New Focus (Nasdaq: NUFO) rose 17 1/8 to 98 5/8, Avanex (Nasdaq: AVNX) rose 9 7/8 to 116 5/8 and Ciena (Nasdaq: CIEN) rose 4 5/8 to 176 1/2.

CyberSource Corp. (Nasdaq: CYBS), up 3/16 to 16 11/16, said Monday it will buy PaylinX Corporation to extend its e-commerce transaction capabilities in a deal worth about $138.6 million.

SBC Communications Corp. (NYSE: SBC), up 5/8 to 45 5/16, announced it will give a PC to consumers who sign up for a two-year high-speed Internet service contract.

Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) fell 4 1/2 to 112, Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) climbed 1 1/8 to 35, AOL (NYSE: AOL) lost 1 7/16 to 55 9/16.

Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) fell 1 7/8 to 137 7/16, and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT)fell 2 1/4 to 79 3/4.

Among other leading tech issues: Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) fell 15/16 to 64 7/16, Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW) rose 1 1/8 to 91 3/16 and Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) fell 2 1/8 to 73 3/4.