Midday Markets: Oracle leads techs amid CPI rally

Strong Oracle earnings and tame inflation data fueled techs at midday Wednesday. The Nasdaq flew up 86.88 to 2,501.55, or more than 3 percent, while the Dow Jones industrial average rose 177.62 to 10,772.61.

The @Net rose 18 to 380.

The U.S. Labor Department reported this morning that the Consumer Price Index was unchanged after April's 0.7 percent gain. A better-than-expected result boosted trading.

Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) lifted its competitors with strong earnings as it soared up 6 15/16 to 32 1/16 with a volume of 59,452,200 shares. Among other stocks in the enterprise software sector, 12 Technologies Inc (Nasdaq: ITWO) rose 6 5/8 to 39 11/16, SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) went up 2 11/16 to 34 13/16, and Manugistics Group Inc (Nasdaq: MANU) rose 1 3/8 to 10 7/8.

PC makers also surged. Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) rose 1 1/4 to 22 7/16 and Hewlett Packard Co. (NYSE: HWP) was up 4 17/16 to 120 5/16. Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) also added 1 3/4 to 47 13/16, DELL (Nasdaq: DELL) rose 1 to 35 5/8, and IBM (NYSE: IBM) was up 4 7/16 to 120 5/16.

Internet stocks continued to gain as interest rate fears receded. Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO), up 15 1/2 to 140 3/4, and CMGI (Nasdaq: CMGI), up 11 1/4 to 88 1/4, were among the Nasdaq most actives. Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) was also up 10 1/2 to 107 following an announcement it will team up with Sotheby's on a Web auction site.

Jabil Circuit (NYSE: JBL) was an anomaly, sinking 7 3/16 to 46 13/16 after Tuesday's announcement fourth quarter earnings were as much as 10 percent below analysts expectations.

Among other high-profile tech issues, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) went up 2 5/16 to 80, Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) was up 3 11/16 to 114 7/8 and Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) added 3 3/8 to 59 1/16.