MIDDAY MARKETS: Motorola sinks techs

Techs were taking a beating again at midday Tuesday, as Motorola's projections and the latest batch of earnings news failed to inspire confidence in the sector. The Nasdaq lost 54.80 to 4,133.40, or 1.31 percent and the Dow Jones industrial average gained 116.03 to 11,302.59.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index shed 21 to 545.91.

After the Nasdaq took its second-biggest plunge ever Monday, investors weren't jumping to snatch up bargains again Tuesday.

Motorola (NYSE: MOT) shares plunged 25 1/2 to 125 1/2 after the company said Tuesday that its second quarter and fiscal 2000 earnings will be slightly below estimates.

In other earnings news, PanAmSat Corp. (Nasdaq: SPOT) grew I 9/16 to 46 3/4 after announcing itearned 38 cents a share for the first quarter ended March 31, vaulting over First Call's expected profit of 19 cents a share. In Focus (Nasdaq: INFS), down 4 13/16 to 33 1/8, and Infosys (Nasdaq: INFY) down 27 11/32 to 214 31/32, also reported quarterly results.

Healthstream (Nasdaq: HSTR) fell 17/32 to 8 15/32 in initial trading of its IPO. Bookham Technology (Nasdaq: BKHM) priced its American Depository Receipts (ADRs) at $15.83 a share for its IPO Tuesday, and Nova Measuring Instruments (Nasdaq: NVMI) also prepared for debut.

S3 Inc. (Nasdaq: SIII), down 15/16 to 17 1/16 is selling graphics chip business and turnings itself into an Internet appliance maker, the company said Tuesday.

Among tech bellwethers, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) fell 1 9/16 to 84 1/2. Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) dropped 7/8 to 53 9/16. Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) fell 2 1/16 to 129 1/16.

Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) lost 3/16 to 63 3/16, Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) lost 6 3/16 to 135 3/4 and America Online Inc. (NYSE: AOL) fell 2 1/2 to 64 3/4.