MIDDAY MARKETS: More gloomy forecasts

Oracle and Knight Trading led techs lower as warnings of slowing revenue sent the Nasdaq down again at midday Wednesday. The Nasdaq tumbled 41.81 to 3,414.02 and the Dow Jones industrial average climbed 55.49 to 10,775.23.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index fell 2 to 466.72.

Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) fell 5.69 to 63.81, or 8 percent, and became the latest tech giant to tumble; the company got a downgrade and a maintained rating Wednesday, as shares fell 10 percent. Analysts were mixed on whether Oracle's decline Tuesday was due to an overall decline in the business-to-business software sector, or a sign that business is slowing for the software company. Ariba (Nasdaq: ARBA) was up 6.97 to 119.44, Commerce One (Nasdaq: CMRC) gained 2.66 to 61.53 and Purchasepro (Nasdaq: PPRO) fell 1.44 to 74.62.

Knight Trading Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: NITE) was down 4.81 to 27.38, or 15 percent after announcing it will post lower than expected third quarter earnings. E*Trade (Nasdaq: EGRP) fell 0.5 to 15.31.

Shares of Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) rose 0.13 to 35.19 after Robertson Stephens analyst Lauren Cooks Levitan expressed concern about that company's ability to achieve profitability under its current business model. AOL (NYSE: AOL) gained 1.52 to 55.87 and Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) rose 1.75 to 85.75.

Maxtor Corp.(Nasdaq: MXTR), down 1.47 to 8.31, said it will buy Quantum HDD (NYSE: HDD), for about $2.3 billion.

Broadcom Corp. (Nasdaq: BRCM), up 4 to 228.25, will acquire British firm Element 14 in a stock swap worth $594 million.

SciQuest (Nasdaq: SQST), down 1.22 to 4.09, forecast a larger-than-expected third-quarter loss, and revenues at the lower end of analysts' estimates.

Storage management software developer Legato Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: LGTO), unchanged at 11.44, said it will bring in two new faces to fill key positions in its executive suite.

Onyx Software (Nasdaq: ONXS), up 3.69 to 21.38, will beat analysts' revenue expectations for the third quarter, the company said Wednesday.

Among other leading tech issues: Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO)rose 1.31 to 57.56, Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) gained 2.31 to 42.63 , Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) was down 0.75 to 55.81.