Midday Markets: Techs not so chipper

Chip stocks led tech stocks lower at midday Thursday as the broader markets fell prey to the interest rate fixation of blue-chips and bonds. The Nasdaq dropped 34 to 2563.75, while the Dow Jones industrial average fell 124 to 10542.43.

Inter@ctive Week's @Net Index fell 6.25 to 296.

The bond market, sank for the fifth day in a row as investors can't take their eyes off next week's Fed meeting. Total orders for durable goods rose 1.4 percent to $197.6 billion, indicating growing demand for industrial machinery and transportation equipment. Jobless claims were just slightly higher than the previous week at 302,000, but below expectations according to the Commerce Department's report Thursday.

Chips stocks were a drag, led by Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) which lost 1/5/16 to 16 7/8 on news of big losses. Memory chip manufacturer Micron Technology (NYSE: MU), down 2 1/16 to 41 7/8, also reported losses after Wednesday's bell. Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) fell 7/8 to 55 11/16.

Omnipoint Corp. (Nasdaq: OMPT) soared 39 percent on Wednesday, up 8 9/16 to 29 3/8 on news that VoiceStream Wireless Corp. (Nasdaq: VSTR) down 1/16 to 19 7/16, will buy it.

Qwest Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: QWST) was up 1 to 33 9/16 on news it has upped its bid for U.S. West Corp. (NYSE: USW), down 1/8 to 57 7/8, and Frontier Corp. (NYSE: FRO), down 1/16 to 59 13/16, in a battle to win them from Global Crossing (Nasdaq: GBLX), down 1/8 to 45 3/4.

Tektronix Inc. (NYSE: TEK) jumped 2 5/8 to 29 3/16, or 10 percent, after it reported fourth quarter earnings of $24.9 million, or 53 cents a share, beating First Call estimates by a penny. Tektronix will also spin off its measurement unit and color printing and imaging division.

Mindspring (Nasdaq: MSPG), was up 4 3/4 to 83 3/8 on talk of "possible business combinations." Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO) dropped 3 11/16 to 151 13/16. Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) also fell 2 7/8 to 114 7/8, and America Online Inc. (NYSE: AOL) dipped 2 9/16 to 109 3/16. At Home (Nasdaq: ATHM) was down 2 to 54 7/16, Lycos Inc. (Nasdaq: LCOS), rose 4 1/4 to 97 3/4, Infoseek Corp. (Nasdaq: SEEK), was up 1/16 to 47 5/16.

Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) fell 9/16 to 22 7/8 after confirming it is in talks with CMGI Inc. (Nasdaq: CMGI), down 1 9/16 to 97 3/8, about the sale of its Web properties.

In other PC-related issues: Gateway Inc. (NYSE: GTW) fell 2 3/84 to 62 1/4, Dell Computer Corp. (Nasdaq: DELL) dropped 7/16 to 37 3/8 and. Apple Computer Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) moved down 5/8 to 43 1/16 and IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) dropped 5/8 to 122 5/16. Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) fell 1 3/8 to 84 5/8.

Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) jumped 7/8 to 61. 3Com Corp. (Nasdaq: COMS) inched up 7/8 to 26 1/4 and Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: LU) dropped 1 3/16 to 64 1/2.

Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL) was up 5/8 to 35 3/4, AT&T Corp. (NYSE: T) was down 1 1/2 to 53 5/8 and Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) dipped 1 1/2 to 65 3/16.