MIDDAY MARKETS: Techs bounce back

Techs revived at midday Tuesday as bargain hunters had a field day among stocks slashed by almost a week of interest rate worries. The Nasdaq bounded up 47.23 to 2,666.42, while the Dow Jones industrial average grew 120.94 to 10,984.10.

Inter@ctive Week's @Net Index rose 3.49 to 285.

Healthy gains were made across the board as downtrodden net issues and cheapened bellwethers revived in the latest upswing of this summer's interest rate yo-yoing. The sensitive bond market also inched up, spurred by a rebound in the dollar and a decline in July consumer confidence.

Investors aren't the only ones deterred by worries about rising interest rates this month, suggests the results of New York-based Conference Board's report. Its index for consumer optimism declined to 135.6 in July from a revised 139 in June, the first drop since October 1998.

Among stocks in the news, Cox Communications Inc. (NYSE: COX), down 1 1/4 to 37 9/16, plans to buy the cable-TV assets of Gannett Co. (NYSE: GCI), up 1 11/16 to 76 3/16 for $2.7 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday

Qwest Communications International Inc. (Nasdaq: QWST), up 5/16 to 28 7/8, posted second quarter earnings a penny above First Call's prediction.

PSINet Inc. (Nasdaq: PSIX), up 13/16 to 55 11/16, posted second quarter results that topped consensus estimates by 11 cents. The business-oriented ISP lost $62 million, or $1 a share, in the second quarter.

eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY) was an anomaly, sinking 2 15/16 to 101 7/16 after Monday's better-than-expected earnings.

Chip assembly equipment maker Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc. (Nasdaq: KLIC), up 7/8 to 24 3/4, reported a third quarter net loss much narrower than analysts expected.

Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) added on 1 1/16 to 88 11/16. Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) gained 3 3/8 to 66 1/4 and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) grew 1/8 to 16 1/2.

IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) tacked on 2 7/16 to 125 7/16, Gateway Inc. (NYSE: GTW) added 2 3/16 to 72 7/8 , Dell Computer Corp. (Nasdaq: DELL) grew 2 1/16 to 42 1/16 and Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) rose 1/4 to 25 3/16. Apple Computer Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) also moved up, 2 11/16 to 53 5/8.

Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) grew 1 to 62 1/16. 3Com Corp. (Nasdaq: COMS) added 3/16 to 24 1/2, and Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: LU) rose 1 5/16 to 65 15/16.

Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO) rose 2 13/16 to 137 1/8, while Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) gained 7/8 to 106 13/16. America Online Inc. (NYSE: AOL) was up 9/16 to 100 11/16. Other Net notables included: Lycos Inc. (Nasdaq: LCOS), up 1 7/16 to 45 1/2, Infoseek Corp. (Nasdaq: SEEK), up 7/16 to 41 7/16, Excite@Home (Nasdaq: ATHM), up 2 5/16 to 48 1/2 and Mindspring (Nasdaq: MSPG), which rose 1/16 to 40 1/4.

CMGi Inc. (Nasdaq: CMGI) also added 2 7/8 to 91 5/8.

Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL) gained 5/8 to 35 5/8, AT&T Corp. (NYSE: T)rose 1/8 to 55, and Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) grew 1 3/16 to 69 1/2.