MIDDAY MARKETS: Techs rebound

Jan. 2, 2002 4:43 p.m. PT

2 min read

The Nasdaq finally climbed into positive territory at midday Tuesday after three sessions in the red. The Nasdaq regained 55.11 to 3,951.46 and the Dow Jones industrial average rose 14.06 to 11,209.55.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index rose 8 to 522.22.

The day's big loser was PRI Automation (Nasdaq: PRIA), which tanked 17.69 to 25 after the maker of automation systems and software for chip manufacturing warned it would miss analyst forecasts by a long shot in its fourth quarter.

General Magic Inc. (Nasdaq:GMGC), up 0.44 to 7.91, said Tuesday it and SpeechWorks International (Nasdaq: SPWX), up 1.19 to 65.81, will jointly develop and host voice technology for enterprise, telecommunications and Internet companies.

Telecommunications company Illuminet Holdings (Nasdaq: ILUM) was up 4.31 to 33.88, or 15 percent, Tuesday after announcing it would not proceed with a 4.2 million share offering.

FreeMarkets Inc. (Nasdaq: FMKT), down 0.12 to 77.38, has signed a procurement deal with Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT), up 0.06 to 68.75, giving that company access to FreeMarkets' business-to-business electronic marketplace.

Electronics retailer Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) topped expectations for the second quarter, posting a profit of $76.7 million, or 36 cents per diluted share. Shares rose 2.31 to 66.75.

The dot-com cash-flow shakeout continued as E-mail marketer NetCreations Inc. (Nasdaq: NTCR) fell 7.88 to 13 after it said it would miss third quarter estimates, thanks to cutbacks in its customers' marketing budgets.

Meanwhile, big name Internet firms were gaining ground: Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) jumped 2 to 108.31, Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) rose 0.81 to 43.19 and AOL (NYSE: AOL) gained 0.06 to 56.31.

In other tech winners, Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM) advanced 4.56 to 62.689 after the Financial Times said China has renewed a commitment to use its mobile technology. Other leading techs also rose: Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) climbed 1.25 to 65.94, Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) jumped 1 to 62.19 and Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) ran up 0.44 to 83.88.