MIDDAY MARKETS: Nasdaq treads above 5,000

Profit-taking overtook techs at midday Friday, despite strong gains for Dell, Microsoft, and the day's new issues.

The Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 7.51 to 5,039.35, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 48.79 to 9,961.94.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index lost 1 to 679.21.

After flying past the 5,100 point earlier in the day, techs succumbed to selling. CMGI (Nasdaq: CMGI), which popped up on good news from yesterday's second quarter report, was down 4 9/16 to 140 13/16.

Deutsche Telekom AG appeared on Friday to have abandoned a $100 billion plus bid for U.S. carriers Qwest (NYSE: Q) and U S West (NYSE: USW). Industry sources said the move could be mere posturing.

The stocks were taking the news at face value though; Qwest plunged 9 1/16 to 50 15/16 and U S West fell 4 3/4 to 71 3/4. Meanwhile, Global Crossing (Nasdaq: GBLX) surged 3 15/16 on speculation it could become a takeover target.

Shares of Rambus (Nasdaq: RMBS), the developer of memory chip technology jumped 43 1/64 to 423 1/4, or 11 percent on news of a 4-for-1 stock split.

OTG Software (Nasdaq: OTGS) jumped 37 5/8 to 56 5/8, or 198 percent after itpriced its 4 million common shares at $19 each for trading Friday, well above their price range of $12 to 14 each.

Selectica (Nasdaq: SLTC) priced 4 million shares at $30 a piece, $5 above their estimated range of $23 to $25 a share, but had yet to debut.

Canadian broadband service provider Group Telecom (Nasdaq: GTTLB) rose 12 3/4 to 26 3/4, or 91 percent.

HomeGrocer.com (Nasdaq: HOMG) priced shares at $12 each, but hadn't begun trading.

Other tech winners Friday included Dell Computer (Nasdaq: DELL), up 3 1/8 to 53 9/16 as Micron Technology (NYSE: MU) took the blame for faulty memory chips in about 400,000 Dell laptops. PaineWebber analyst Don Young raised his 12-month price target on Dell to $78 from $50.

Shares of Micron fell 5 3/8 to 104 5/8.

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) rose 1 7/8 to 101 7/8 after announcing its entry into the computer game business with the XBox game console. Sony (NYSE: SNE), which reportedly is seeing some problems with PlayStation2, fell 15 15/16 to 243 1/8.

Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) rose 3/16 to 118 9/16.

Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) lost 2 5/16 to 66 1/2. Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) lost 5 1/16 to 178 3/16.