MIDDAY MARKETS: Investors worry about Net stocks, Fed meeting

The Nasdaq lost ground at midday Monday as techs slid in anticipation of Tuesday's Fed meeting, and a report that many Internet companies are running low on cash. The Nasdaq sank 34.10 to 4,764.03 and the Dow Jones industrial average climbed 109.83 to 10,705.06.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index lost 7 to 638.58.

Techs lackluster performance may have been in anticipation of tomorrow Tuesday's Federal Reserve meeting on interest rates. A report from Barron's ranking the top 207 Internet stocks by who is expected to run out of cash first didn't help matters.

MicroStrategy (Nasdaq: MSTR) shares plunged 48 percent to 117 Monday morning, but had recovered slightly, down just 128 3/16 to 98 9/16 at midday after the company restated its results, issued a profit warning and postponed a secondary offering.

Xybernaut (Nasdaq: XYBR) recovered from an 11 percent dip Monday morning after it issued a statement saying that the drop in its stock price Friday was overblown. Shares were up 1 7/16 to 18.

CDNow continued to fall, down 7/8 to 5 7/8, though it disputed a Barron's report saying the company only had a month's worth of cash left.

CDNow said it has six months of cash. Investors weren't relieved. The other top 2 stocks expected to burn through their funding also dropped. Pilot Network Services (Nasdaq: PILT), ranked first, was down 10 percent, or 5 1/8 to 44 3/4. Secure Computing (SCUR), in third place, was also down 15 percent, or 3 23/64 to 19 33/64. Peapod (Nasdaq: PPOD), which is projected to run out of cash soon, fell to 24 percent to 2 23/32.

3Com (Nasdaq: COMS) was up 3 27/64 to 71 27/64 ahead of its earnings expected after the bell. The company is also expected to announce a restructuring.

America Online and PurchasePro.com (Nasdaq: PPRO), down 8 3/4 to 143 announced a 3-year deal to co-develop a browser-based business exchange platform powered by PurchasePro.com's technology.

America Online Inc. (NYSE: AOL) rose 3/8 to 65 1/8 and Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) fell 2 5/8 to 168 1/2. Yahoo announced plans to set up a business-to-business marketplace. Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) fell 1 1/4to 63 9/16,

Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) was the Nasdaq's most active gainer, up 2 to 58 7/16. Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) fell 11/16 to 98 11/16, and Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) was up 5 15/16 to 135 11/16.