MIDDAY MARKETS: Nasdaq bounces back

Techs bounced back again at midday Tuesday, as another rush of quarterly reports helped investors shrug off valuation concerns. The Nasdaq rose 137.61 to 3,620.09, and the Dow Jones industrial average climbed 60.18 to 10,966.28.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index gained 20 to 478.88.

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) rose 1 3/4 to 68 3/8, taking back some of Monday's 16 percent. Shares were hammered Monday on sluggish growth prospects and break-up concerns.

Telecom earnings dominated the morning for techs; Bell Atlantic (NYSE: BEL) dropped 1/8 to 61 13/16 after it said its first-quarter profits rose 10 percent to 80 cents a share, in line with First Call's expectations, amid strong demand for data and wireless services.

SBC Communications (NYSE: SBC), up 1 7/16 to 43 11/16, beat estimates for its first quarter Tuesday, citing strong growth in its wireless, data and international operations for better-than-expected results.

Nextlink Communications (Nasdaq: NXLK), up 1 13/16 to 69 13/16 scraped by estimates Tuesday with a first quarter loss of $1.59 a share.

In other quarterly reports, Juno Online (Nasdaq: JWEB) fell 9/16 to 10 1/2 after it reported a net loss of $1.28 a share as the company spent heavily to acquire subscribers.

MarketWatch.com (Nasdaq: MKTW), down 1 11/16 to 14 13/16 led the latest round of Internet earnings with a smaller-than-expected first quarter loss.

E-Loan, Inc. (Nasdaq: EELN) flew ahead 86 percent, or 3 1/2 to 7 9/16 after the company announced an infusion of $40 million, and a bullish rating.

Among companies slated to report after Tuesday's bell, Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) was up 15/16 to 27 3/16, eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY) rose 3 3/8 to 145 1/4 and Nortel Networks (NYSE: NT) was up 3 1/2 to 102.

Tech and Net bellwethers were also on the rise; Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) was up 4 11/16 to 120 13/16, Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL)jumped 2 19/64 to 74 47/64 and Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) gained 1 to 64 7/16.

Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) tore up 11 7/16 to 125 5/16, Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) rose 2 3/4 to 52 9/16, and America Online Inc. (NYSE: AOL) rose 1 3/4 to 59 3/4.
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