MIDDAY MARKETS: Strong tech earnings spark rally

A batch of strong earnings hoisted the Nasdaq into a surprise summer rally at midday Thursday. The Nasdaq climbed 65.06 to 4,164.65 and the Dow Jones industrial average gained 8.13 to 10,791.54.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index shot up 19 to 523.47.

Among companies posting quarterly results, Motorola (NYSE: MOT), up 2 5/8 to 38 7/8, seems to have reassured Wall Street during a conference call this morning, after posting second quarter results Wednesday night. Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) rose 1 13/16 to 143. Applied Micro Circuits (Nasdaq: AMCC), up 22 15/16 to 148 3/8, and Ariba (Nasdaq: ARBA) were also powering up after positive earnings news.

On the IPO front, Sunrise Telecom (Nasdaq: SRTI), maker of testing equipment for telecom and Internet networks, priced at $15, above its $11-$13 range. The 4 million share offering was raised from an original $10 to $12 range.

Web server appliance maker Network Engines (Nasdaq: NENG) priced at the top of its new price range. I-many (Nasdaq: IMNY) and Triton Network Systems (Nasdaq: IMNY) also priced.

RealNetworks' (Nasdaq: RNWK) rose 5 3/4 to 52 1/2 following news its software will be used throughout America Online's (NYSE: AOL) networks, the companies said Thursday. AOL shares gained 1 1/8 to 58 1/8.

Open Market Inc. (Nasdaq: OMKT), down 3 11/32 to 8 19/32, tumbled 28 percent Thursday after it warned second quarter results would miss estimates due to lower revenue in its services business.

AVX Corporation (NYSE: AVX), down 1 9/16 to 27 7/16, reported Thursday that net income was $120.4 million, or 68 cents a diluted share, for its first quarter, well above First Call's prediction of 49 cents a share.

Long-distance telephone powerhouses WorldCom Inc. (Nasdaq: WCOM), up 2 11/16 to 47 3/16, and Sprint Corp. (NYSE: FON), down 1/8 to 46 7/8 canceled their $120 billion merger plan Thursday following regulatory complaints.

Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) fell 15/16 to 124, Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) rose 7/16 to 35 1/2 and AOL (NYSE: AOL) gained 1 1/16 to 58 1/16.

Among other leading tech issues: Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) gained 2 7/8 to 66 3/4, Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW) was up 7/16 to 93 13/16, Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) rose 1 to 75 11/16 and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) was down 1 3/4 to 78 9/16.