MIDDAY MARKETS: Bargains lure buyers

Cheapened techs lured investors back into the sector at midday Wednesday. The Nasdaq rose 0.83 to 3,689.93 and the Dow Jones industrial average shed 66.31to 10,860.69.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index fell 8 to 507.39.

The Nasdaq rose for the first time in 5 days Wednesday as reduced prices and analyst talk encouraged buying.

VerticalNet (Nasdaq: VERT) burst out of the gates, up 2.38 to 32.63 after analysts talked up the downtrodden stock, and predicted the company will beat estimates in its upcoming third quarter. Ariba (Nasdaq: ARBA) fell 4.69 to 154.38 and Commerce One (Nasdaq: CMRC) rose 0.94 to 76.06.

Metromedia Fiber Networks Inc. (Nasdaq:MFNX) hopped up 1.75 to 23.75 after getting talked up by two analysts.

Shares of 3Com Corp. (Nasdaq: COMS), shot up 2.63 to 16.56 a day after the company surprised investors with a narrower-than-expected loss.

Corning Inc. (NYSE:GLW), down 9 to 316, said Wednesday it will buy Pirelli's optical components and devices business for about $3.6 billion. JDS Uniphase (Nasdaq: JDSU) fell 3.44 to 99.63.

AvantGo (Nasdaq: AVGO), priced above range for trading Wednesday, with 5.5 million shares tagged at $12 a piece. The provider of content for wireless devices had given a range of $9 to $11 a share.

M-Wave Inc. (Nasdaq: MWAV), up 5.44 to 22.44, which makes printed circuit boards for wireless communications, said third-quarter earnings should be up about 50 percent from the second quarter.

The world's leading wireless technology leader and largest Web access provider teamed up to put Internet messaging and e-mailing into the palms of mobile phone users worldwide. NTT DoCoMo, said it will take a 42.3 percent stake in America Online Inc's (NYSE: AOL) Japanese unit, AOL Japan, with an investment of $95.82 million in cash. AOL shares were down 1.46 to 54.69.

Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) fell 1.50 to 38.25 and Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) fell 6.94 to 95.50.

Among other leading tech issues: Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) rose 0.50 to 55.69, Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) rose 1.56 to 44.88, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) fell 1.75 to 60.94 and Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) shed 0.19 to 79.25.