MIDDAY MARKETS: Techs post modest gains

Techs posted slight gains midday Friday on earnings and IPOs, while the Dow slouched off toward the weekend. The Nasdaq rose 10.62 to 2849.99, while the Dow Jones industrial average sunk 35.14 to 11,151.27.

Inter@ctive Week's @Net Index dipped 2.05 to 320.

In economic news, the Federal Reserve Board reported Friday that U.S. industrial production rose for the fifth month in a row June, helping fueling the largest quarterly increase in output in one-and-a-half years. U.S. factory, mine and utility output climbed 0.2 percent, in line with economists' expectations.

Two debuts were the most active at midday. Paradyne Networks (Nasdaq: PDYN) tripled in debut, rising 221 percent up 37 5/8 to 54 5/8. Audible Inc. (Nasdaq: ADBL) also took off, soaring 85 percent, up 7 5/8 to 16 5/8.

Seagate Technologies (NYSE: SEG), down 3 7/16 to 26 9/16, lowered the bar for itself, but announced late Thursday it still couldn't make the earnings match.

Programmable logic device maker Altera Corp. (Nasdaq: ALTR), down 3 5/8 to 41 1/2, met analysts' estimates in its second quarter Thursday, but slipped 8 percent on a downgrade from Morgan Stanley Dean Witter.

Shares of QLogic Corp. (Nasdaq: QLGC), up 6 1/4 to 146 1/8, jumped 7 percent Friday after the company announced first quarter earnings of 60 cents a share, a dime better than First Call estimates.

Excite@Home (Nasdaq: ATHM), sunk 5 percent, down 2 1/8 to 45 7/16. Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) fell 1 13/16 to 152 5/8, Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) sunk 1 29/32 to 137 21/32 and America Online Inc. (NYSE: AOL) fell 1 3/8 to 119 5/8. Lycos Inc. (Nasdaq: LCOS), rose 1/8 to 104 1/16. Infoseek Corp. (Nasdaq: SEEK) fell 1/2 to 43 5/16 and Mindspring (Nasdaq: MSPG), gained 1 1/2 to 48 1/2.

CMGI Inc. (Nasdaq: CMGI) lost 2 1/4 to 110.

Among PC-related issues: Gateway Inc. (NYSE: GTW) sunk 1 5/8 to 70 3/8, Dell Computer Corp. (Nasdaq: DELL) dropped 7/16 to 43 1/2, and Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) fell 19/32 to 27 3/16. Apple Computer Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) moved up 1/16 to 53 5/16 and IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) fell 1/8 to 136 3/16.

Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) added 3 1/2 to 97 7/8 Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) fell 3/16 to 67 1/2, while Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) fell 3/16 to 17 1/2.

Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) fell 9/16 to 66, 3Com Corp. (Nasdaq: COMS) inched down 1/8 to 27 13/16, and Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: LU) picked up 3/4 to 78 3/8.