MIDDAY MARKETS: Intel carnage

Intel was causing a bloodbath at midday Friday; the chip-maker's unexpected third quarter warning sent competitors and leading techs into the red. The Nasdaq tumbled 112.51 to 3716.36 and and the Dow Jones industrial average shed 109.23 to 10,656.29.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index fell 5 to 514.20.

Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) plunged 12.97 to 48.50, as analysts debated whether its third quarter warning is due to just a temporary slackening in European demand. Others say the party's over for the world's biggest chip maker.

One of the few bright spots among the carnage was Inrange Technologies (Nasdaq: INRG) an established, profitable company, which signaled the IPO market was back in full-swing Friday: $7.7 million shares blasted up 148 percent, or 23.75 to 39.750.

While the warning pulled down other leading tech issues -- Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO)dropped 1.56 to 59.56, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) was down 2.25 to 61.94 and Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) fell 1.81 to 77.13 --- others have taken steps to reassure investors.

Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HWP), up 4.81 to 99.81, said CEO Carly Fiorina has taken over the chairman's post at the firm, which announced today that it was initiating a share buyback program and sees revenue growth on targetfor the fourth quarter.

Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ), up 1.5 to 29.38, issued a release stating that "our worldwide momentum is clearly continuing and European demand is currently tracking within our expectations." But shares of Dell Computer Corp. (Nasdaq: DELL) dropped 3.13 to 34.81.

Although Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) was also marked down by a few firms, its stock actually rose 0.75 to 24.69 in morning trading.

National Semiconductor (NYSE: NSM), up 1.94 to 40.438, announced a plan to buy back 8 million shares of stock.

KLA Tencor (Nasdaq: KLAC) plunged 5.25 to 44.06, Applied Materials (Nasdaq: AMAT) dropped 5.38 to 68.13, Brooks Automation (Nasdaq: BRKS) fell 2.47 to 40.47, Credence Systems (Nasdaq: CMOS) lost 2.81 to 36.25, Novellus Systems (Nasdaq: NVLS) was down 8.03 to 50.53, Nova Measuring Instruments (Nasdaq: NVMI) slipped 0.75 to 10.75, Photronics (Nasdaq: PLAB) was off 1.13 to 23.81 and PRI Automation (Nasdaq: PRIA) fell 2.81 to 21.

1-800-Flowers.com (Nasdaq: FLWS), up 0.50 to 44.06 has signed a new five-year deal with America Online Inc. (NYSE: AOL), up 1.19 to 54.69.

Online ad network ValueClick Inc. (Nasdaq: VCLK), down 0.06 to 8.50 warned that it would not meet third quarter estimates, and set a $10 million share buyback program.

Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) rose 1.38 to 41.44 and Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) fell 1.31 to 106.813.