Wall Street: Tuesday mid-session

INVESTORS took some money off the table after Monday's market surge lifted shares to levels not seen since early July. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, up 212 points in the first trading session of the week, gave back 102.87 points or 1.14% to 8887.92 by mid-session. The Nasdaq eased 10.48 points or 0.75% to 1384.06.

Analysts said the pullback was understandable given the market's rapid run-up over the past month and Monday's bounce, which came on light turnover.

Conflicting company profit reports - upbeat results from do-it-yourself retailer Home DepotAgilent - helped dampen Monday's hopes that the worst might be over.

Home Depot shares leapt $1.72 or 6% to $30.75, while Agilent, a recent spin-off from Hewlett-Packard, dived $1.12 or 6.4% to $16.32. H-P shares fell 29 cents or 2% to $14.71.

Reports of consolidation in the wireless telephone sector hurt the Dow. Local telephone company SBC, a Dow component, dropped $1.86 or 6.2% to $28.01 on suggestions that Deutsche Telekom was in talks to sell its VoiceStream wireless subsidiary to Cingular, part-owned by SBC and BellSouth. The report set off a chain reaction in the sector, with BellSouth shares off $1.32 or 5% to $25.39 and DT's American shares trading down 12 cents or 1% to $11.39.

Vodafone's US shares eased 51 cents or 3% to $16.29 on fears that Cingular, bolstered by VoiceStream, would become a formidable competitor to the wireless joint venture the UK company has with Verizon Communications. Verizon shares tumbled $1.51 or 4.5% to $32.08.

Embattled telecoms Qwest Communications shot up 60 cents or 27% to $2.84 after it announced it was selling its yellow pages directory business for $7bn.

AT&T rose 44 cents or 4% to $11.20 on indications it would sell its stake in TimeWarner entertainment to AOL TimeWarner. AOL tacked on 16 cents or 1.2% to $13.49.

Techs gave back some of Monday's gains with Microsoft off 82 cents or 1.6% to $51.18, IBM lower by $1.74 or 2% to $80.75 and Intel down 46 cents or 2.4% to $19.02.