MIDDAY MARKETS: Mergers, earnings rattle techs

Internet issues were leading the movers at midday Tuesday on a mixed bag of merger news and earnings jitters. The Nasdaq retreated 20.72 to 2,769.72, while the Dow Jones industrial average fell 74.09 to 11,126.89.

Inter@ctive Week's @Net Index rose 18 to 380.

The Nasdaq was edging down again, as sellers continued to take back last week's record gains. Even mergers news couldn't excite buyers. The only big gains came from China.com's take-off, unfettered by potential risks.

China.com Inc.'s IPO (Nasdaq: CHINA) blasted up 39 1/16 to to 59 1/16 after pricing its 4.2 million share offering at $20, well above the company's original price range.

Shares of online music retailer CDNow Inc. (Nasdaq: CDNW) were down 1 1/2 to 20 3/4 after the company said it will merge with Columbia House, which is jointly owned by Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE), down 1/2 to 117, and Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), down 1/2 to 75 9/16.

Excite@Home (Nasdaq: ATHM), down 1 5/8 to 49 7/8, said Tuesday it plans to acquire e-commerce provider iMALL, Inc. (Nasdaq: IMAL) down 5/8 to 21 11/16, in a stock swap valued near $425 million.

Online retailer Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) jumped 4 7/8 to 122 1/4 as it branched out even further from its bookstore roots, today launching a new toy store and an electronics store. Online toy store eToys (Nasdaq: ETYS), down 2 13/32 to 39 1/2, just yesterday announced it would get into the business of selling children's books online.

Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO) gained 2 1/2 to 152 3/4 and America Online Inc. (NYSE: AOL) dropped 1 11/16 to 120 5/8. Lycos Inc. (Nasdaq: LCOS) fell 2 to 101, Infoseek Corp. (Nasdaq: SEEK), dropped 1 to 44 15/16, and Mindspring (Nasdaq: MSPG), fell 1 1/4 to 47 5/8.

Among PC-related issues: Gateway Inc. (NYSE: GTW) fell 9/16 to 63 9/16, Dell Computer Corp. (Nasdaq: DELL) fell 5/8 to 43 and Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) added 1/8 to 26 9/16. Apple Computer Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) dropped 13/16 to 53 11/16 and IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) Added 1/16 to 137 7/8.

Vitesse Semiconductor (Nasdaq: VTSS) tumbled 3 to 68 3/4 after it reported third-quarter profits of 24 cents per share Monday, beating estimates by a penny. Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) lost 7/8 to 19 7/8, in anticipation of its earnings report, due after the bell. Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) dropped 5/8 to 93 9/16 and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) lost 3/16 to 17 3/16.

Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) edged down 9/16 to 65 1/16, 3Com Corp. (Nasdaq: COMS) was even at 26 13/16, and Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: LU) dropped 1 1/8 to 72 7/16.

Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL) fell 1/8 to 38 3/4, AT&T Corp. (NYSE: T) lost 7/16 to 57 1/8, and Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) dipped1 1/16 to 74 1/8.