Midday Markets: Net stocks prop up techs

After a slow start, Internet stocks supported slacking techs at midday Thursday. Compaq and Western Digital struggled following profit warnings. The Nasdaq shifted up 18.11 to 2,535, while the Dow Jones industrial average skipped 6.97 up to 10,791.92.

Inter@ctive Week's @Net Index rose 6.89 to 291.22.

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan dropped no new nuggets in his testimony to the Joint Economic Committee. He reiterated that the U.S. central bank is squarely focused on keeping product prices stable.

Internet stocks, however, were the story of the day. CMGi Inc. (Nasdaq: CMGI) rocketed 10 5/16 /16 to 103 7/16. Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) shot up 6 7/8 to 148 1/2, and Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) boosted 6 6/16 to 117 3/4. America Online Inc. (NYSE: AOL) added 6 3/8 to 112 7/8. Other Net notables included: Lycos Inc. (Nasdaq: LCOS), up 5 1/2 to 87 15/16; At Home (Nasdaq: ATHM), up 5 3/4 to 52 3/4; and Mindspring (Nasdaq: MSPG), up 1 15/16 to 66 13/16. Infoseek Corp. (Nasdaq: SEEK) was flat at 49 1/4

Bad news for Compaq Computer Corp.(NYSE: CPQ) pushed prices down 1/16 to 22 3/16. The company said it will report a second quarter loss of 5 cents per share below estimates. Shares were well off their lows, however.

Other PC notables included Hewlett Packard Co. (NYSE: HWP), which was down 2 1/4 to 88 1/2. Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) also fell 1 to 46 15/16. DELL (Nasdaq: DELL) rose 3/4 to 36 9/16,and IBM (NYSE: IBM) was down 9/16 to 120 1/8. Gateway Inc. (NYSE: GTW) added 17/16 to 66 7/8.

Western Digital Corp. (NYSE: WDC) dropped 3/8 to 6 1/2 after announcing that fourth quarter losses would be in the range of 90 cents a share to 98 cents a share. Competitor Seagate (NYSE: SEG) fell 7/8 to 28 1/8. Quantum (Nasdaq: QNTM) was up 1/2 to 22 7/16, and Komag Inc. (Nasdaq: KMAG) jumped 1/8 to 3 5/8.

Micron Technology Inc. (NYSE: MU) got a boost to 1 3/16 to 45 5/16 after ABN AMRO upgraded the stock from an "outperform" to a "buy" recommendation Wednesday.

Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) added 1 3/4 to 82 3/4 and Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) drooped 1 15/16 to 57 3/4 while Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) tacked on 1/16 to 18 5/16.

Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) jumped 1 3/8 to 117 5/8 following an announcement it would buy TransMedia. 3Com Corp. (Nasdaq: COMS) inched up 13/16 to 27 7/16, and Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: LU) picked up 1/8 to 61 5/8.

Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL) skipped 11/2 to 34 7/16, and Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) was up 7/16 to 62 1/2. AT&T Corp. (NYSE: T) dipped 1/16 to 54 1/4.