MIDDAY MARKETS: Economic treats sustain tech rally

Good news from new home sales kicked techs into the third day big gains at midday Friday. The Nasdaq soared 94.30 to 2,969.52 and the Dow Jones industrial average gained 142.48 to 10,765.01.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index leapt 12 to 356.54.

News that new home sales fell 12.8 percent in September to an annual rate of 811,000 was seen as more evidence for a case against inflation, kindling hope the Federal Reserve won't raise interest rates again.

Intel Corp.(Nasdaq: INTC) was top of the Nasdaq in volume, rising 4 11/16 to 76 7/8. Despite early indications to the contrary, Intel said it expects 1999 to be the best year for the PC business since the mid-1990s. But the company is shifting its focus away from PCs and PC chips -- and developing a new integrated processor code-named "Timna."

Friday's IPOs had yet to debut. Akamai (Nasdaq: AKAM) priced at $26 a share. Allied Riser (Nasdaq: ARCC) priced at $18, and Chartered Semiconductor (Nasdaq: CHRT) priced at $20.

Mortgage.com (Nasdaq: MDCM) fell 3/8 to 10 3/4 after it had a third quarter operating loss of $16.4 million, or 59 cents a share. The results topped expectations.

Go2Net, Inc. (Nasdaq: GNET) surged 13 percent Friday after a shining earnings report and a deal with Net2Phone (Nasdaq: NTOP).

America Online Inc. (NYSE: AOL) was up 2 3/16 to 129 5/16 after it announced its second 2-for-1 split this year. Amazon.com Inc.'s (Nasdaq: AMZN) fell 13/16 to 70 3/16, and Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) jumped 3 ? to 178 ?.

Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) rose 3 1/8 to 93 and IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) rose 3 1/8 to 98 1/16.

Dell Computer Corp. (Nasdaq: DELL) rose 1 7/8 to 40 3/8 and Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) jumped 3/16 to 19.

Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) rose 3 1/4 to 74 3/16 and Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) jumped 1 7/8 to 64 7/8.