MIDDAY MARKETS: Techs retreat

Techs backed away from early morning gains at midday Wednesday, as a new batch of earnings wasn't enough to sustain the rally. The Nasdaq fell 2.80 to 3,708.43, and the Dow Jones industrial average retreated 104.24 to 11,020.58.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index gained 4 to 494.21.

Among Wednesday's winners was Nextel Communications (Nasdaq: NXTL), which rose 4 7/16 to 116 after it beat the Street with a loss of 83 cents a share for the first quarter, citing strong subscriber growth and high average revenue per customer.

ICG Communications (Nasdaq: ICGX) rose 2 7/16 to 28 5/16 after it came in a dime short of estimates with a first quarter loss of $2.52 a share Wednesday as it continued to build its network.

BMC Software (Nasdaq: BMCS) rose 5 5/8 to 46 7/16, or 14 percent after the company got a slew of upgrades praising its Tuesday earnings news.

Shares of Drkoop.com (Nasdaq: KOOP) surged Wednesday after the company renegotiated its pricey portal pacts with America Online (NYSE: AOL), up 1/4 to 61 1/4 and Go.com (NYSE: GO), up 1/16 to 13 15/16.

Among companies reporting after Wednesday's bell, Earthweb (Nasdaq: EWBX) was up 2 15/16 to 14, or 27 percent, also getting a boost from a marketing pact with Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO), which was up 1 1/2 to 126.

Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN), expected to report its first-quarter loss after market close, was up 4 1/4 to 56 11/16.

JDS Uniphase (Nasdaq: JDSU) was also up on high on volume, rising 6 9/16 to 99 1/2 after its recent earnings report. Compaq (NYSE: CPQ) was down 1/16 to 30 3/16 after reporting a so-so first quarter, while Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) was up 1/4 to 51 3/8.

EBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) was down 2 1/2 to 151 1/16 after reporting higher-than-expected first-quarter profit and setting a 2-for-1 stock split. EBay, however, ran up 11 percent ahead of the earnings report.

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), the Nasdaq's most actively traded stock, was up 1 7/16 to 70 13/16. Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) was second, gaining 2 9/16 to 68 9/16. Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) fell 1 1/16 to 123 15/16.

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