MIDDAY MARKETS: Techs dip while Microsoft gains

Techs slumped at midday Tuesday, but Microsoft gained on news the government would not issue a decision on its antitrust trial today. The Nasdaq shed 42.48 to 4,916.08, and the Dow Jones industrial average climbed 47.47 to 11,073.32.

Though the Nasdaq was slipping, the Dow gained ground on news OPEC was set to approve an increase in oil supplies.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index sank 8 to 680.26.

Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) regained ground on news no decisions would be issued Tuesday in the government's antitrust case. If there's no ruling today, it may mean the government and Microsoft are still interested in resolving the dispute.

Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) lost 4 1/32 to 138 21/32.

On the earnings front Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), up 1 7/16 to 77 1/16, iTurf (Nasdaq: TURF), down 1 to 10 1/4, and FastWeb (Nasdaq: FSST), down 3/16 to 13 3/4, reported results.

Arrow Electronics (NYSE: ARW), up 3 3/16 to 35 5/16, said it saw an upside surprise; the company said it expects to report earnings "close to double" the 30 cents a share reported a year ago.

Nortel Networks (NYSE: NT), down 2 7/16 to 140 5/8 launched an e-business unit on Tuesday from its recent acquisitions of Clarify and Periphonics.

Efficient (Nasdaq: EFNT) fell 12 13/16 to 158 3/4 after it said it would buy private Net security firm NetScreen Technologies for $905 million.

Terayon (Nasdaq: TERN), up 9 7/8 to 226 1/2, agreed to buy Ultracom and inked a deal for broadband deployment in China.

Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) was down 1 1/16 to 79.

Autobytel (Nasdaq: ABTL), up 3/4 to 9 1/8, continued its PR duel with Autoweb.com (Nasdaq: AWEB), up 1 7/16 to 9 5/8.

Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) lost 3 3/8 to 69 3/4, Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) lost 4 7/16 to 196 5/16 and America Online Inc. (NYSE: AOL) dropped 2 9/16 to 71 7/8.