MIDDAY MARKETS: Techs hold gains

Some solid earnings helped the Nasdaq continued to bounce back at midday Monday, despite another dour report from Lucent. The Nasdaq gained 16.59 to 3,499.73 and the Dow Jones industrial average rose 83.98 to 10,310.57.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index rose 7 to 471.03.

Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) booted CEO Rich McGinn and replaced him with former chairman Henry Schacht. The company also cut its sales and profit outlook for the first quarter of 2001. Shares rose 0.75 to 23.38.

SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE: SBC), up 2 to 52.75 reported third quarter earnings of 56 cents a share, a penny above First Call's consensus estimate.

Fiber optics maker Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW), down 5.13 to 100.81, said third-quarter profits more than doubled, in line with its recently raised forecast, amid surging demand for optical fiber and components used in communications networks.

Lexmark International Inc. (NYSE: LXK), up 3.81 to 33.31, beat estimates for its third quarter, but announced 900 layoffs Monday, and said it will take a charge of up to $45 million as it restructures.

Stamps.com (Nasdaq: STMP), up 0.16 to 2.88, said Monday it will lay off about 240 employees as part of a plan to streamline operations and move towards profitability.

Drugstore.com (Nasdaq: DSCM), down 0.06 to 2.5, which announced late Friday that it was laying off 10 percent of its staff, reported a pro forma loss of $33.3 million, or 58 cents per share for the third quarter Monday.

Ticketmaster Online-City Search Inc. (Nasdaq: TMCS), up 2.22 to 14.84, is considering a merger or joint operation deal with sister firm Ticketmaster Corp.

RealNetworks Inc. (Nasdaq: RNWK) shares jumped 1.63 to 23.63 after the company announced a strategic alliance with Sony Corp.

Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) fell 2.06 to 28.75, AOL (NYSE: AOL) rose 2.25 to 48.82 and Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) gained 2.25 to 61.25.

Among other leading tech issues: Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) was unchanged at 57.31, Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) rose 1.88 to 44.94, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) was down 1.75 to 63.44, and Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) shed 1 to 34.25.