The Internet sector was one of the few standout areas of the market as the major barometers were up only slightly at midmorning.

TheStreet.com Internet Sector

index was up 17 to 586.

Lycos

(LCOS)

was the biggest gainer in the index, up 14 7/16, or 15%, to 110 9/16. Lycos' largest shareholder,

CMGI

(CMGI)

, has hired

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter

to seek other suitors for Lycos in an effort to thwart the company's planned merger with

USA Networks

(USAI) - Get Report

,

The Wall Street Journal

reported. The newspaper reported that CMGI's chairman and chief executive, David S. Wetherell, said one of the options being considered is CMGI's outright purchase of Lycos.

CMGI rose a more modest 5 1/2 to 199 7/8.

TheStreet.com E-Commerce Index

was up 3 to 107.

Elsewhere, the

Dow Jones Industrial Average

was up 12 to 9706. The

S&P 500

was up 1 to 1280. The

Nasdaq Composite Index

was up 7 to 2400. The small-cap

Russell 2000

up 1 to 400.

Meanwhile, the Treasury market wasn't giving the stock market a hand. The 30-year Treasury bond was down 5/32 to 95 23/32, yielding 5.55%, off its lows.

Scott Curtis, senior equity trader at

Brown Brothers Harriman

, in an interview when the long bond was around its lows, pointed out that the bond market was selling off somewhat ahead of tomorrow's

retail sales

report and on supply pressure from the corporate bond market.

In the news,

Banque Nationale de Paris

has made a $37 billion bid to buy

Societe Generale

and

Paribas

. Only last month, Societe Generale and Paribas agreed to get together. The news has failed to do much for bank stocks here.

Meanwhile,

DuPont's

(DD) - Get Report

board has authorized the creation of a "tracking" stock for its life sciences businesses. DuPont -- which has been reportedly in merger talks with

Monsanto

(MTC) - Get Report

-- said it is "actively seeking alliances with other strong partners in the pharmaceuticals industry."

In a news release, Charles O. Holliday Jr., DuPont chairman and chief executive, said: "Given the success of our discussions to date, we expect to be able to conclude one or more of these alliances by the end of this year."

DuPont was up 2 1/16 to 5 5/8.

Semiconductor stocks were higher, after falling sharply yesterday. The

Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index

tumbled a little more than 4% yesterday. Today the index is up 2%.

In general, tech stocks are trying to shrug off the

Intel

(INTC) - Get Report

preannouncement rumors, said Curtis.

Those rumors were a general drag on tech stocks yesterday. Intel was up 1 7/8 to 117 3/16.

Oil service stocks were flying again, with the

Philadelphia Stock Exchange Oil Service Index

jumping 6%.

On the

New York Stock Exchange

, advancers were beating decliners 1,382 to 1,127 on 221 million shares. On the

Nasdaq Stock Market

, winners were beating losers 1,609 to 1,418 on 280 million shares.

On the NYSE, 34 issues had set new 52-week highs while 32 had touched new lows. On the Nasdaq, 45 issues had set new highs while new lows totaled 24.

On the Big Board,

Compaq

(CPQ)

was most active, with 10 million shares changing hands. It was down 1 to 31 3/4.

On the Nasdaq,

Dell

(DELL) - Get Report

was most active, with 13 million shares changing hands. It was up 1/8 to 44 1/4.

10:05 a.m.: Stocks Mostly Lower at Open

Stocks mostly lower early on, with the Internet sector a bright spot.

TheStreet.com Internet Sector

was up 5 to 574.

TheStreet.com E-Commerce Index

was up 2 to 106.

The

Nasdaq Composite Index

was down 10 to 2383.

Elsewhere, the

Dow Jones Industrial Average

was down 9 to 9685. The

S&P 500

was down 4 to 1276. The

Russell 2000

was up 1 to 400.

The 30-year Treasury bond was down 9/32, to 95 19/32, yielding 5.55%.

Most Up at Open -- NYSE

America Online (AOL) , up 2 1/2 to 92 1/2

: Henry Blodget, Internet analyst at Merrill Lynch, who until

recently worked at

CIBC Oppenheimer

, has rated

America Online

(AOL)

both near-term and long-term buy.

Most Up at Open -- Nasdaq

Lycos (LCOS) , up 13 1/4 to 109 1/2

: Lycos' largest shareholder,

CMGI

(CMGI)

, has hired

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter

to seek other suitors for Lycos in an effort to thwart the company's planned merger with

USA Networks

(USAI) - Get Report

,

The Wall Street Journal

reported. The

Journal

reported that CMGI's chairman and chief executive, David S. Wetherell, said one of the options being considered is CMGI's outright purchase of Lycos.

Most Down at Open -- NYSE

Sap (SAP) - Get Report, down 1 7/16 to 25 15/16

: The German software company fell on concerns over slowing growth.

Most Down at Open -- Nasdaq

WPP Group (WPPGY) , down 2 3/4 to 86

.