MIDDAY MARKETS: Techs tread water

A fresh batch of earnings helped technology stocks into positive territory at midday Tuesday. The Nasdaq rose 26.73 to 2,784.64 and the Dow Jones industrial average was up 47.99 to 10,626.23.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index rose 2 to 320.48.

Data storage giant EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC), up 0.69 to 77.19, handily beat consensus estimates for earnings and revenue in the fourth quarter. The company reported earnings of $563 million, or 25 cents a share, on revenue of $2.62 billion.

Openwave (Nasdaq: OPWV) moved up 14 percent or 7.63 to 60.87 Tuesday after a hefty upside earnings surprise. Analysts cheered the results.

Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE: CY) slipped 1.19 to 25.25 after it said Tuesday earnings for its fourth quarter were 74 cents a share, two pennies above Wall Street's consensus estimate. But the company also sees a slowdown ahead.

Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) was off 7 percent, or 3.56 to 45 after its disappointing quarterly report Monday, as the company got downgraded by analysts.

Freemarkets (Nasdaq: FMKT) plunged 5.88 to 20.81, or 22 percent Tuesday despite beating fourth quarter estimates and boosting its outlook for the next quarter. Analysts found a few items to complain about in an otherwise strong quarter.

NCR Corp. (NYSE: NCR), down 0.06 to 43.06, reported fourth-quarter earnings that beat already lowered expectations and said it expects 2001 revenues to grow at a faster pace than last year.

Telecom equipment company Tellabs (Nasdaq: TLAB), up 5.25 to 58.75, met analyst earnings estimates for its fourth quarter on Tuesday and posted strong revenue growth despite fears of a slowdown. The company also gave a positive outlook for 2001.

Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) gained 0.06 to 41.5, Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) was up 0.31 to 33.68, Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) fell 0.06 to 31.75 and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) fell 0.81 to 59.31.

Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) fell 0.19 to 18.68, AOL (NYSE: AOL) slipped 0.59 to 53.25 and Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) grew 1.31 to 36.