MIDDAY MARKETS: Techs surge after employment report

Techs surged with relief Friday after April's job report, as they came to terms with the fact that the Fed is likely to deal with interest rates aggressively at its next meeting. The Nasdaq rose 73.04 to 3,793.28, and the Dow Jones industrial average climbed 138.37 to 10,550.86.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index gained 14 to 500.33.

After sending techs down throughout the week, investors decided they had priced in a half-percentage point rise in interest rates Friday. Wall Street analysts and market experts were mixed on the latest productivity data

Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO), up 3 7/16 to 67 1/16, agreed Friday to snap up recently public ArrowPoint Communications (Nasdaq: ARPT), up 3 1/4 to 138 1/16 for about $5.7 billion.

Earnings were still trickling in; DSL.net (Nasdaq: DSLN) , up 7/16 to 13 1/4, said its first quarter loss was 33 cents a share, topping First Call's expected loss of 35 cents a share. Metrocall (Nasdaq: MCLL), down 9/16 to 6 1/2, and Mitel (NYSE: MLT) also reported results.

J.D. Edwards & Company (Nasdaq: JDEC) tanked 11 percent , or 1 13/16 to 14 1/4 after warning it would lose between $20 and $25 million for its second quarter.

P-Com Inc. (Nasdaq: PCMS) tumbled 2 9/16 to 8 15/16, or 22 percent, after it reported a net loss of 21 cents a share for its first quarter, blaming high materials and start-up costs for weak gross margins.

Internet advertising network 24/7 Media (Nasdaq: TFSM) , down 3/16 to 20 11/16, said on Friday it filed suit against rival online advertiser DoubleClick (Nasdaq: DCLK), down 1/2 to 61 7/16.

Among other leading tech companies, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) rose 7/16 to 70 7/8, Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) gained 2 1/16 to 76 5/16, Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) rose 2 3/16 to 49 7/16 and Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) was up 2 7/8 to 122 7/16.

Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) rose 13/16 to 55 7/8, Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) climbed 2 1/4 to 126 7/16 and America Online Inc. (NYSE: AOL) gained 1 5/16 to 57 9/16.