MIDDAY MARKETS: Techs creep ahead

Mergers and upgrades were making ripples at midday Monday, as techs rose slowly without the aid of economic news to give them momentum. The Nasdaq rose 2.93 to 2,872.55, and the Dow Jones industrial average slipped 8.23 to 10,795.40.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index sank 1 to 307.15.

On the broader markets, trading was thin due in part to the Yom Kippur holiday. Trading volumes also usually subside on the Monday after a triple-witching Friday.

VoiceStream Wireless Corp. (Nasdaq: VSTR) announced one of many deals Monday. Shares were up 9/16 to 56 5/8 after the company said it and Aerial Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: AERL), up 4 3/4 to 24 3/4, a digital-cellular-phone company, would merge to form a wireless network.

Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) skipped up 5/8 to 90 1/8, Bell Atlantic (NYSE: BEL) lost 3/16 to 63 11/16 and AT&T Corp. (NYSE: T) slipped 3/8 to 45 1/4.

Computer Sciences Corp. (NYSE: CSC), up 1 1/16 to 65 3/8, said it would buy Nichols Research Corp. (Nasdaq: NRES), down 1/2 to 25, a technical services company for military systems, in a $391 million stock deal.

Internet service provider PSINet Inc. (Nasdaq: PSIX), up 13/16 to 41 1/2, said it had bought Internet service providers in Spain, Brazil and Hong Kong.

Shares in Priceline.com com Inc. (Nasdaq: PCLN) up 6 9/16 to 64 13/16 and Razorfish Inc. (Nasdaq: RAZF), up 8 7/8 to 39 3/4 were both rising on upgrades Monday morning, which, remarkably, were not doled out by underwriters of the companies' IPOs

IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) jumped 1 5/8 to 127 and Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) gained 3 9/16 to 92 1/4. Gateway Inc. (NYSE: GTW) climbed 1 3/4 to 51 1/4 and Dell Computer Corp. (Nasdaq: DELL) slipped 3/8 to 48 1/2. Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) jumped 7/16 to 24 3/16 and Apple Computer Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) rose 3 to 79 15/16.

Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) sank 9/16 to 72 15/16, Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) lost 1 1/16 to 64 and 3Com Corp. (Nasdaq: COMS) rose 11/16 to 28 1/4.

Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL) dropped 1/8 to 43 7/16. Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) gained 5/8 to 97 1/16, Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) hovered at 84 5/8, and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) slipped 1 1/8 after news Gateway Inc. wouldn't be using its chips.

Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) gained 3 3/8 to 166 1/2, America Online Inc. (NYSE: AOL) lost 2 1/4 to 83 3/4 and Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) rose 11/16 to 64 1/2. Other Net notables included: Lycos Inc. (Nasdaq: LCOS), down 7/16 to 44, Excite@Home (Nasdaq: ATHM), down 1/4 to 38 3/16, and Mindspring (Nasdaq: MSPG) up 1/4 to 27 3/8. eBay Inc.(Nasdaq: EBAY) sank 8 to 133 and CMGi Inc. (Nasdaq: CMGI) rose 11/16 to 80 11/16. Infoseek Corp. (Nasdaq: SEEK), was down 1 3/16 to 27 9/16. Infoseek executive vice president Patrick Naughton, 34, was apprehended late Thursday night after his underage date turned out to be an FBI special agent.