MIDDAY MARKETS: Nasdaq revives

Investors finally saw the light of bargains at midday Thursday, snapping up discounted tech stocks, while the Dow languished. The Nasdaq rose 62.53 to 3,832.16, and the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 86.87 to 11,038.26.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index gained 8 to 505.87.

After Wednesday's loss put the Nasdaq down more than 25 percent from its record high, making it an official bear market, investors finally started buying techs again.

Techs even shrugged off a higher-than-expected PPI, and the fear that that could signal increasing raises on interest rates from the Federal Reserve. The Producer Price Index jumped 1 percent last month, according to the Labor Department's Thursday report.

Analysts cheered first-quarter results for Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD), though investors showed a lackluster reaction to the stock, which had risen sharply just ahead of the company's announcement. Shares were down 1 1/16 to 74 15/16 at midday. Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) rose 5 3/8 to 127 1/4.

KLA-Tencor (Nasdaq: KLAC), up 1/8 to 78 1/8, reported earnings of 38 cents a share for its third quarter, topping estimates by a nickel.

Computer services supplier Unisys (NYSE: UIS), down 1/16 to 23 9/16, reported that first quarter net income was in line with recently lowered expectations.

Ameritrade (Nasdaq: AMTD), down 9/16 to 7 15/16, easily topped estimates Thursday with fiscal second quarter earnings of $3.2 million, or 2 cents a share.

Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO), trading the most shares on the Nasdaq, was down 1/2 to 64 1/2. Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), the second most active stock, was up 2 1/8 to 81 1/2.

Expectations for companies that report earnings after the bell was also helping the tech revival; Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW) was up 3 3/16 to 83 13/16. Gateway (NYSE: GTW), which also reports after market close, was down 1 to 54 1/4.

Ariba (Nasdaq: ARBA) rose 4 7/8 to 76 7/8 after it reporting earnings with an upside surprise. The good news didn't cause much excitement among other B2B stocks, which have been suffering in the tech downdraft; PurchasePro (Nasdaq: PPRO) rose 15/16 to 35 31/64, while VerticalNet was down 33/64 to 40 and Commerce One (Nasdaq: CMRC) was down 1 1/16 to 92 11/16.

Webvan (Nasdaq: WBVN), up 11/16 to 6 3/16 is also slated to report earnings after the bell. Among other e-tailers, eToys (Nasdaq: ETYS) was up 5 1/2 to 6 1/2, CDNow (Nasdaq: CDNW) was even at 4 1/8 and Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) lost 7/16 to 55 15/16.

Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) rose 4 11/16 to 140 7/8 and America Online Inc. (NYSE: AOL) lost 1 1/4 to 61 1/4.