Midday Markets: Techs pad gains

Techs continued to move into positive territory at midday on Tuesday. The Nasdaq climbed 35 to 2,562 and the @Net gained 7 to 328. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 65 to 11,072.

Stocks posted modest gains across the board ahead of Cisco Systems Inc.'s (Nasdaq: CSCO) third quarter results and economic data due Thursday and Friday. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 14 to 1,354 and the Russell 2000 for small caps rose 4 to 445.

America Online Inc. (NYSE: AOL) ascended 9 7/16 to 137 3/4 after unveiling its designs to attack the television market. AOL is buying $300 million worth of set-top boxes from Philips Electronics NV (NYSE: PHG) and is partnering with DirectTV and Hughes Electronics to develop its own Web TV product.

Cisco rose 1 5/8 to 110 7/8 ahead of its third quarter results scheduled after the bell. Ascend Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: ASND) added 1 11/16 to 96 7/16.

Lycos Inc. (Nasdaq: LCOS) dropped 5 1/2 to 99 3/4 after gains Monday on speculation that USA Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: USAI) may drop its acquisition plans. Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) gained 2 1/2 to 149 3/8. Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) gained 9 9/16 to 165 1/4 after launching a broadcast radio service.

Maker Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: MAKR) began trading, rising 7 to 20 in its first day trading. Shares opened at 19 5/16 after pricing at $13 a share in its 3.35 million share initial offering.

Meridian Data Inc. (Nasdaq: MDCD) rose 4 1/8 to 7 5/8 after Quantum Corp. (Nasdaq: QNTM) agreed to acquire the company. Quantum increased 3/4 to 20.

NeoMagic Corp. (Nasdaq: NMGC) slipped to a 52-week low at 8 7/8 after the laptop graphic accelerator designer was downgraded to "neutral" from "outperform" at Morgan Stanley. Shares dropped 1 15/32 to 9 21/32 in noontime trading.

TheStreet.com Inc. (Nasdaq: TSCM) rose 46 to 65 in opening trade. Shares opened at 61 after pricing its 5.5 million share offering at $19 a share last night.

US Web Corp. (Nasdaq: USWB) rose 2 9/16 to 26 1/2 after Prudential Securities began coverage at "strong buy."

Dell Computer Corp. (Nasdaq: DELL) added 13/16 to 43 1/16, International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) rose 1 1/4 to 219 7/8 and Gateway Inc. (NYSE: GTW) climbed 7/8 to 67 5/8.

Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) rose 1 1/8 to 61 3/4 and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) added 1/4 to 18 15/16.

Among software makers, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) climbed 3/8 to 80 1/16, Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE: CA) rose 5/16 to 42 13/16 and Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL) rose 1 3/8 to 25 3/4.