Tech stocks take a breather

Technology stocks retreated from Monday's surge in trading Tuesday as the Dow Jones industrial average lost 47.40 points to 7650.82 and the NASDAQ slid 13.65 points to 1600.46.

The market had a generally cautious tone all day after the Labor Department announced the Consumer Price Index nudged up 0.2 percent in October as expected.

Most of Tuesday's winners came from the telecommunications segment as Sprint Corp., AT&T and MCI Corp. all enjoyed solid days. AT&T picked up $3.88 per share to $52.50 after Sanford Bernstein and Lehman Brothers both reiterated their "buy" ratings on the stock. MCI shares rose 50 cents to $42.63 and Sprint Corp. gained $1.06 per share to $58.56.

Intel Corp. was off $1.69 per share to $78.75 and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. lost 6 cents per share as fears of sagging prices for flash memory chips hurt both stocks. IBM shed $1.44 per share to $102.06.

Dell Computer Corp. gained 50 cents per share to $85.13 while Compaq Computer Corp. and Gateway 2000 Inc. lost 13 cents and 38 cents per share, respectively.

Lycos Inc. made an early climb before falling back $2.63 per share to $31.25 -- despite exceeding expectations for the first quarter and turning a profit for the first time ever. Yahoo! Inc. lost 25 cents per share to $51.75 and Excite Inc. dipped 94 cents per share to $27.19.

Shares of Visigenic Software Inc. soared $2.50 per share to $7.75 after being acquired by Borland International Inc., but Borland's shares dropped $1.63 to $10.38.

Among networking stocks, Cisco Systems Inc. lost 75 cents per share to $82.31. 3Com Corp. fell 63 cents per share to $33.50 and Ascend Communications Inc. was off 88 cents to $24.56.

Sun Microsystems Inc. lost $1.69 per share to $35.06. Apple Computer Inc. shed 44 cents per share to $18.06 while Amazon.com Inc. gained 50 cents per share to $53.