MIDDAY MARKETS: Nasdaq hits 3000

Good things come in threes, but that won't stop the Nasdaq from seeing more gains ahead. After the index hit a landmark 3,000 Tuesday morning, techs continued their rally into midday. The Nasdaq was up 45.66 to 3,013.31, and the Dow Jones industrial average gained 88.69 to 10,737.20.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index leapt 4 to 362.58.

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan offered no clues on the interest rate outlook in his speech to community bankers in Orlando, Fla. He said the effect of rising house prices on consumer spending, the engine of U.S. economic growth, was estimated to be bigger than that of rising stock prices.

The bond market also responded favorably to the optimistic outlook on interest rates, sparking a spending spree across the board.

Knight/Trimark Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: NITE) was making strong gains again, up 2 1/4 to 30 3/4 or 8 percent as it announced a deal with OptiMark Technologies, Inc..

Packeteer, Inc. (Nasdaq: PKTR) shot up 15 percent Tuesday after the company announced a bevy of deals as part of its move into the ASP (application service provider) market. Shares had settled down to just a 4 percent increase by midday, up 1 3/4 to 41 7/8.

Newbridge Networks (NYSE: NN) fell 4 7/16 to 16 5/16 after it said its president and chief operating officer is resigning after a profit warning. Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) jumped 1 1/2 to 74 3/8 and Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) was even at 65.

Williams Communications Group, Inc. (NYSE: WCG) beat First Call's predicted a loss of 24 cents a share in its first publicly reported quarter. Shares were down 7/8 to 31 11/16.

Amazon.com Inc.'s (Nasdaq: AMZN) sank 1 1/16 to 68 1/16, Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) fell 5/16 to 180 3/8 and America Online Inc. (NYSE: AOL) rose 1 5/8 to 135 5/8.

Recent Dow addition Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) was up 1 3/4 to 94 1/8 and IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) fell 5/16 to 96 7/16.

Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) fell 5/16 to 19 1/16. Other computer makers hit by a suit alleging they sold defective floppy-disk drives included Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HWP), up 3/16 to 74 13/16, NEC Corp., Packard Bell-NEC Electronics Inc. and eMachines Inc. Dell Computer Corp. (Nasdaq: DELL) was resting at 40 3/4.

Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) was up 2 to 78.