MIDDAY MARKETS: Techs like the look of Greenspan's briefcase

Merger news overshadowed any worries about inflation Tuesday morning.

The Nasdaq rose 23.74 to 2819.71, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 56.98 to 10458.21. The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index sank 6 to 334.08.

News of the largest corporate merger in history took the spotlight among communications stocks Tuesday, even as the Federal Reserve's Open Markets Committee held its monthly meeting on interest rates.

MCI WorldCom Inc. (Nasdaq: WCOM) , down 3 5/16 to 68 5/16, and Sprint Corp. (Nasdaq: FON), down 11/16 to 60 3/16 were also making news after they confirmed the largest merger ever with a stock swap valued at $115 billion, excluding debt. The new company will be named WorldCom.

Intel said it would buy privately held IPivot in an all-cash transaction for $500 million to speed up its e-commerce web traffic. Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) rose 3/16 to 77 13/16. Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL) sank 3/16 to 46 5/16, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) rose 1 to 93 9/16, and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) rose 1 to 18 7/8.

Newly public networking firm Foundry Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: FDRY) bounded up 18 1/8 to 153 7/8 after it said Tuesday third-quarter revenues should be $36 million to $38 million, topping its own forecasts.

Meanwhile, the day's IPOs were getting mixed reactions. AltiGen Commnications (Nasdaq: ATGN) was up 6 5/8 to 16 5/8, or 66 percent, and XM Satellite Radio (Nasdaq: XMSR) idled ahead ? to 12 ?, or just 2 percent.

Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) rose 15/16 to 78. Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) rose 2 1/8 to 173 5/16, America Online Inc. (NYSE: AOL) rose 2 1/16 to 111 3/16. Other Net notables included: Lycos Inc. (Nasdaq: LCOS), up 2 9/16 to 54 13/16, and Infoseek Corp. (Nasdaq: SEEK), up 5/8 to 31 1/16. Excite@Home (Nasdaq: ATHM), down 3/8 to 43 ? and EarthLink Network, Inc. (Nasdaq: ELNK) up 1 5/8 to 42 5/8. eBay Inc.(Nasdaq: EBAY) fell 9/16 to 138 11/16.

Apple Computer Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) bounded up 3 5/16 to 67 7/8, IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) gained 2 to 121 7/8 and Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) added 1 1/32 to 97 9/16. Gateway Inc. (NYSE: GTW) rose 1 ? to 50 15/16 while Dell Computer Corp. (Nasdaq: DELL) gained 5/8 to 43 7/8. Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) lost 1/16 to 22 3/8.

Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) climbed 1 _ to 72 1/4, Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) rose 2 1/16 to 65 1/16 and 3Com Corp. (Nasdaq: COMS) rose 5/64 to 30 1/64.