Market midday: Techs subside

Technology stocks turned south with the rest of the market in the afternoon after a brief morning burst.

The tech-saturated Nasdaq Composite Index was down 31.37 to 2453.25, the @100 Index had fallen 11.24 to 4645.72, and the @Net Index had slid 7.84 to 280.29. The S&P 500 retreated 7.18 to 1295.64, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 73.39 to 10547.81.

Stocks mixed in sluggish late-morning trading on Friday after the excitement over the latest economic data subsided. "It's just another lackluster day," said Bryan Piskorowski, market analyst at Prudential Securities.

The Commerce Department reported that the Producer Price Index in May rose just 0.2 percent. Excluding food and energy the index was up 0.1 percent.

Shares of Internet incubator CMGi Inc. (Nasdaq: CMGI) fell 10 to 91 1/2 after the company reported a seemingly wider-than-expected loss in its third quarter.

CMGi posted a net loss of $27.7 million, or 29 cents a share, on sales of $43.7 million, much worse than the 13-cent-a-share loss forecast by First Call analysts. Including one-time items, CMGi reported a net loss of $27.8 million, or 30 cents per diluted share.

However, discounting revenues from recent acquisitions, one-time gains, and in-process R&D charges, CMGi lost roughly 22 cents a share -- in line with adjusted consensus estimates, the company said.

Online auction house eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) retreated 11 5/8 to 171 1/16 following its second website failure in as many days.

Pacific Crest Securities initiated coverage of a pair of online advertising stocks with "strong buy" ratings, but it didn't help them. 24/7 Media (Nasdaq: TFSM) went down 1/8 to 30 1/8, and Doubleclick (Nasdaq: DCLK) dropped 4 3/16 to 89 1/2.

National Semiconductor (NYSE: NSM) slid 15/16 to 21 9/16 after the chipmaker reported fourth quarter results in line with analyst estimates, and predicted profitability by the second quarter of the current fiscal year. The company also said it is negotiating with potential buyers of its Cyrix unit.

J.P. Morgan Securities upgraded National Semiconductor to "buy" from "market perform". Josephthal & Lyon downgraded the chipmaker to "hold" from "buy".

Today's Internet-related IPO, Phone.com (Nasdaq: PHCM), was up 20 to 36.

Network Solutions Inc. (Nasdaq: NSOL) rose for a second day following the company's unveiling of a new directory. Shares of the domain name registrar were up 5/8 to 66 7/8.

Harbinger Corp. (Nasdaq: HRBC) moved up 1 5/16 to 12 3/8. The maker of e-commerce software said it expects to report second quarter results as good or better as analysts expected.

Novell Corp. (Nasdaq: NOVL) gained 3/8 to 23 11/16 after CIBC Oppenheimer began coverage of the stock as a "strong buy".

Tellabs (Nasdaq: TLAB) increased 9/16 to 59 5/16. BancBoston Robertson Stephens started coverage of the telecom equipment maker with a "buy" rating.

JDA Software (Nasdaq: JDAS) gained 5/8 to 11. US Bancorp Piper Jaffray upgraded the company to "buy" from "neutral".>