MIDDAY MARKETS: Techs sluggish ahead of earnings

Profit takers took the wind out of techs at midday Monday as the markets ran in place ahead of earnings reports. The Nasdaq lost 8.99 to 2,784.08, while the Dow Jones industrial average sunk 25.33 to 11,168.37.

Inter@ctive Week's @Net Index sunk 4.73 to 323.

On the broader markets, Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS), up 3/16 to 27 13/16, stole the fire from earnings as it reported plans to buy the remainder of Infoseek Corp. (Nasdaq: SEEK), down 3 15/16 to 47 9/16.

All other net notables were seeing red; (Nasdaq: YHOO) sunk 6 to 164, while Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) dropped 2 1/2 to 123 and America Online Inc. (NYSE: AOL) fell 2 15/16 to 125 5/16 a share. Lycos Inc. (Nasdaq: LCOS), dropped 1 5/16 to 105 7/8, Excite@Home (Nasdaq: ATHM), fell 1 5/8 to 52 3/16 and Mindspring (Nasdaq: MSPG) fell 1 3/4 to 49 3/8.

CMGi Inc. (Nasdaq: CMGI) lost 3 7/8 to 117 1/8.

Even good earnings news wasn't enough to buoy Ameritrade Holding Corporation (Nasdaq: AMTD) in Monday's morose markets. Shares sunk 1 1/4 to 36 7/8 after the company announced that third quarter earnings beat expectations.

Computer retailer CompUSA Inc. (NYSE: CPU), up 1/16 to 7 7/16, said it planned to make Ingram Micro Inc. (NYSE: IM), up 3/4 to 27 1/4, a key distributor in a $10 billion deal.

Conexant Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CNXT) rose 3 1/8 to 64 5/8 after company officials announced the maker of analog PC and fax modem chipsets will join the Nasdaq 100 Index Wednesday.

Youbet.com Inc. (Nasdaq: UBET) sunk 6 percent, down 11/16 to 11 11/16 after Hollywood Park Inc. (HPK)announced the termination of its agreement allowing Youbet.com to accept wagers on Hollywood Park races.

High Speed Access (Nasdaq: HSAC) and Metricom (Nasdaq: MCOM) bore the brunt of profit takers wrath; High Speed Access tanked 18 percent, down 8 1/4 to 39 7/16, and Metricom fell 6 1/16 to 34 15/16, or 15 percent on no apparent news.

Dell Computer Corp. (Nasdaq: DELL) was one of the few gainers, adding 11/16 to 43 1/2 on an upgrade from SG Cowen announced Monday morning. Gateway Inc. (NYSE: GTW) also grew 1 7/16 to 69 1/16. Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) fell 3/4 to 26, Apple Computer Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) lost 1/2 to 55 1/8, and IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) sunk 1 1/2 to 135 7/8.

Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) lost 1/4 to 93, and Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) fell 5/8 to 65 5/8, while Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) added 3/16 to 17 3/16.

Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) was down 3/8 to 66 11/16, 3Com Corp. (Nasdaq: COMS) fell 1/2 to 26 7/8, and Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: LU) picked up 1 1/2 to 73 7/16.

Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL) fell 5/8 to 38 11/16, AT&T Corp. (NYSE: T) dropped 5/16 to 56 7/8 and Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) gained 9/16 to 73 1/2.