MIDDAY MARKETS: Techs rally

A wave of relief drove techs into a rally at midday Wedensday, as investors continued to celebrate the lack of surprises at Tuesday's Fed meeting. The Nasdaq rose 109.58 to 4821.26 and the Dow Jones industrial average lost 75.70 to 10,831.64.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index gained 10 to 657.13.

Investors relieved that the Federal Reserve lifted rates by just the smallest increment, and not the half point some had feared, snapped up technology stocks that had been slashed ahead of the meeting, while letting blue-chips languish.

Volatile Rambus shares rebounded 68 19/64 to 334 7/8 after being battered down over troubles in Taiwan and negative comments about the company's technology.

Shares in Micron Technology Inc. (NYSE: MU) rallied 16 13/16 to 136 1/16 as Wall Street shrugged off an earnings shortfall from the world's No. 2 computer memory chip maker. Analysts focused on the company's positive outlook for the next quarter.

Semiconductor issues were up across the board. Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), the second most-active on the Nasdaq, was up 4 11/16 to 143 1/8. AMD (NYSE: AMD) was up 3 11/16 to 58 1/2.

Among IPOs, InSilicon (Nasdaq: INSN), the spin-off of Pheonix Technology's semiconductor intellectual property unit, priced shares at $12. Trading didn't start at the time of this posting.

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), the most active stock on the Nasdaq, rose 1 15/64 to 103 63/64.

PSINet (Nasdaq: PSIX), down 5 3/4 to 43 3/4 will buy business software and service company Metamor Worldwide (Nasdaq: MMWW) up 18 to 35, or almost 120 percent along with its electronic commerce software affiliate Xpedior (Nasdaq: XPDR), up 7 1/4to 21 9/16 for $1.9 billion.

Santa Cruz Operation (Nasdaq: SCOC) plummeted 4 to 9 1/16 percent Wednesday after it said Tuesday that second-quarter and year-end sales will be significantly lower than expected.

Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) rose 7/16 to 72 13/16, Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) rose 6 7/64 to 197 55/64 and America Online Inc. (NYSE: AOL) rose 2 11/16 to 70 1/16.