MIDDAY MARKETS: Techs struggle

Techs put up a fight against the drag of the bond market at midday Monday, but even earnings and mergers couldn't outweigh the netgative pull. The Nasdaq sank 5.33 to 2,811.19 and the Dow Jones industrial average shed 97.20 to 10,373.05.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index was resting at 334.99.

The bond market pulled stocks into the red as it declined over concerns about a tight labor market and growing wage pressures. On Thursday, the release of the employment cost index should shed some light on those fears. Techs put up a good fight as acquisitions and earnings boosted nets and e-commerce players.

AT&T Corp. (NYSE: T) was up 1 1/8 to 44 1/8 after it beat Wall Street estimates by a penny Monday with third quarter operating earnings of $1.75 billion, or 54 cents a share, on revenue of $16.3 billion. Earnings were down from a year ago, primarily because of the acquisitions of TCI and IBM's Global Network business.

Electronic Data Systems Corp., (Nasdaq: EDS) up 3 1/4 to 53 7/16, the world's No. 2 largest computer services company, and MCI WorldCom Inc., (Nasdaq: WCOM), up 1 1/8 to 74 3/4, said they completed deals worth $12.4 billion to exchange services between the two companies.

Excite@Home (Nasdaq: ATHM), up 5/8 to 39 11/16, said Monday it would acquire Bluemountainarts.com from Blue Mountain Arts Publishing for $780 million in cash and stock.

CMGI Inc (Nasdaq:CMGI) rose 4 11/16 to 107 13/16, after its majority-owned AltaVista unveiled a major overhaul, and announced an aggressive advertising campaign that the company says is one of the most expensive in technology history.

Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) rose 2 3/8 to 81, EarthLink Network, Inc. (Nasdaq: ELNK) sank 13/16 to 42, Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) rose 7/8 to 179 and America Online Inc. (NYSE: AOL) sank 2 3/4 to 117 5/8.

U.S. Interactive (Nasdaq: USIT) gained 3 to 24 1/2, or 14 percent Monday after Hambrecht & Quist rated the stock "buy" and put it on stock on their focus list.

Digital Island Inc. (Nasdaq: ISLD), a provider of Internet services to business, blasted up 36 percent, or 8 5/16 to 31 5/16 as it announced a merger with closely held Sandpiper Networks Inc.

Stamps.com (Nasdaq: STMP) jumped 1 1/2 to 39 5/8 as it announced it has agreed to buy closely held iShip.com Inc. for stock valued at about $300 million to create an online marketplace for mailing and shipping services.

Harbinger Corp. (Nasdaq: HRBC) lost 11/16 to 19 3/8 after it posted earnings of 10 cents a share, beating First Call consensus by a penny. Not much of a surprise since its September statement that accelerating demand for its business-to-business products and services would put it ahead of estimates.

Dell Computer Corp. (Nasdaq: DELL) lost 1/8 to 39 3/4 as it reportedly jumped to No. 1 among sellers of personal computers in the United States in the third quarter, surpassing struggling Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ), up 1/8 to 18 13/16.

Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) fell 1 1/16 to 65 1/2, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) slipped 1 5/16 to 91 3/8, and Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) fell 1 11/16 to 71 3/4.