MIDDAY MARKETS: Techs show signs of life

Nets continued to lurk in the red while other techs brightened in a modest rally at midday Wednesday. The Nasdaq recovered 19.39 to 2,509.50, and the Dow Jones industrial average gained 12.98 to 10,668.13.

Inter@ctive Week's @Net Index sunk 1.76 to 252.25.

Without any major economic news to tip the jittery markets Wednesday, earnings and deals won the day, spurring the Nasdaq to perk up about 0.75 percent, a modest gain ahead of the Dow's 0.20 percent gains.

Among the techs in the news, Red Hat (Nasdaq: RHAT) had yet to make its debut at $14 a share.

Integrated Device Technology (Nasdaq: IDTI) jumped 9 percent Wednesday, up 1 5/16 to 17 1/4 after it inked a cross-licensing agreement with Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC), up 2 13/16 to 74 9/16.

Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) sunk 1/8 to 82 13/16, and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) picked up 1/4 to 18 11/16.

Convergent Communications (Nasdaq: CONV) was even at 12 3/4 after it got a boost from its second quarter earnings, but remained short of its IPO price.

Ravisent Technologies (Nasdaq: RVST) also sprang off double-digit revenue gains and coverage initiated at a "buy" rating by Bear Stearns, gaining 1 15/16 to 12 3/8, or almost 19 percent.

eToys Inc. (Nasdaq: ETYS) dipped down 1/2 to 30 after shares jumped Wednesday on a three-year, $18 million marketing agreement with America Online, Inc. (NYSE: AOL), which rose 5/8 to 85 5/8.

Otherwise, nets were losing, with Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) down 3 1/4 to 124 1/4 and Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) in the red 4 9/16 to 86 7/16. America Online Inc. (NYSE: AOL) was down 4 1/16 to 81 1/2. Other Net notables included: Lycos Inc. (Nasdaq: LCOS), down 15/16 to 32 13/16, Infoseek Corp. (Nasdaq: SEEK), down 1 to 29 11/16, Excite@Home (Nasdaq: ATHM), down 5/16 to 34 5/16, and Mindspring (Nasdaq: MSPG) down 1 3/16 to 26 3/8. CMGi Inc. (Nasdaq: CMGI) also shed 3 9/16 to 72 5/8.

IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) added 1 1/4 to 120 9/16, Gateway Inc. (NYSE: GTW) fell 1/16 to 77 15/16, Dell Computer Corp. (Nasdaq: DELL) rose 5/8 to 41 1/16, and Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) grew 1/8 to 22 3/8. Apple Computer Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) also moved up 1 5/8 to 57.

Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) rose 5/8 to 62 1/4, Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) grew 1 5/8 to 60 3/8, and 3Com Corp. (Nasdaq: COMS) gained 3/8 to 23 5/16.

Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL) fell 5/16 to 35 11/16, AT&T Corp. (NYSE: T) gained 3/16 to 49 1/8, and Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) rose 1 to 69.