MIDDAY MARKETS: Nokia uplifts tech stocks

An upbeat report from Nokia helped boost technology stocks at midday Thursday, while Oracle shares dipped ahead of the company's quarterly report.

The Nasdaq composite rose 31.22 points to 2,003.31, and the Dow Jones industrial average gained 42.27 points to 1,0015.73.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index rose 4 points to 192.41.

Nokia (NYSE: NOK), up $3.09 to $24.89, reiterated its projections for first-quarter growth, but indicated that sales are slowing. Investors applauded the report as they had been expecting much worse news after the recent warnings from Motorola (NYSE: MOT), up 50 cents to $14.99, and Ericsson (Nasdaq: ERICY), up 25 cents to $6.16.

The news helped the tech-heavy Nasdaq stay above the 2,000 mark; it had closed Wednesday at slightly below that number.

Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) fell 50 cents to $15.57 ahead of its quarterly report, due out after the bell. The company had already warned that results would be worse than original expectations because of the economic environment.

Ciena (Nasdaq: CIEN), up $4.38 to $57.75, raced ahead 10 percent even though the company made no announcement. Its upbeat tone at an investment conference today along with some positive analyst notes had investors assuming current projections were on track.

Nextel Partners (Nasdaq: NXTP) gained $1.75 to $14.81 after the company reiterated its 2001 financial guidance. The company's partner, Nextel Communications (Nasdaq: NXTL), up 44 cents to $15.06, yesterday warned that it would miss its first-quarter numbers.

Shares of SanDisk (Nasdaq: SNDK) fell 81 cents to $20.06 after the company said its first-quarter numbers would be "significantly lower" than expected, due to a slumping economy and customer inventory corrections.

Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) was up 50 cents to $11.13, AOL Time Warner (NYSE: AOL) rose 13 cents to $40.17 and Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) gained 38 cents a share to $15.69.

Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) rose 63 cents to $20.88, Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) rose 63 cents to $29.69 and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) was up $1.06 to $55.06.

ZDII staff and Reuters contributed to this roundup.