MARKET CLOSE: Techs keep falling

Tech stocks on Monday picked up where they left off last week -- going down.

The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 103.92 to 3,568.90 and the S&P 500 lost 0.28 to 1,436.23. However, the blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 49.21 to 10,700.13.

Inter@ctive Week's @100 Index gained 18.58 to 3,887.06.

Technology investors saw no reason to turn upbeat following Friday's losses. "We will be trendless here until we get some important earnings out," said Barry Hyman, chief investment strategist at Weatherly Securities. "There are earnings concerns out there and the market is not going to turn anything significant until we see decent earnings reports coming in the tech sector."

Apple Computer (Nasdaq: AAPL), whose earnings warning last week helped trigger the current Nasdaq rout, fell 1.5 to 24.25.

Broadvision (Nasdaq: BVSN) retreated 3.875 to 21.8125. Robinson Humphrey downgraded the e-commerce software maker to "neutral" from "outperform".

Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) fell 1.4375 to 40.125. The PC processor giant has reportedly delayed the release of its Pentium 4 chips because of trouble with related chipsets.

Nortel Networks (NYSE: NT) was among the day's few gainers. The network equipment maker, up 1.5 to 61.875, landed a 10-year, $1.5 billion contract to supply equipment for Cable & Wireless (NYSE: CWP).

Also rising was Nortel's chief rival, Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO), up 0.25 to 55.25 as the most active stock on U.S. markets.

Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASM Lithography Holding N.V. (Nasdaq: ASML), down 2.4375 to 29.875, will acquire rival Silicon Valley Group Inc. (Nasdaq: SVGI), up 7.375 to 33.6875, in a stock swap worth $1.6 billion.

Infineon Technologies (NYSE: IFX), up 1 to 48.5, said Monday it will buy Ardent Technologies, a supplier of integrated circuits for local area network switching systems, for $42 million. The deal is part of its goal to enter the enterprise networking sector.

Foundry Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: FDRY), provider of switching and routing systems, said Monday that Global TeleSystems (NYSE: GTS) is using its equipment for its Web hosting centers throughout Europe. Shares of Foundry moved down 2.125 to 64.8125. GTS slid 0.5 to 4.

Microchip Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: MCHP), up 4.125 to 37.1875, gave investors some encouraging news Monday; it expects to report earnings and sales above expectations for the second fiscal quarter.

Semiconductor equipment firm MKS Instruments Inc. (Nasdaq: MKSI), down 4.375 to 23, has agreed to acquire Applied Science and Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: ASTX), up 2.5 to 17.25, in a deal worth around $300 million.

Project Software & Development Inc., or PSDI, (Nasdaq: PSDI), down 4.296875 to 11.25, said Monday it expects earnings and revenue to miss estimates for the quarter ended September 30, due to deals that will close later than expected and weakness in the Asian markets.