MARKET PREVIEW: Techs eye PPI, Dell results

The PPI report will make or break the day for techs Friday, as investors digest Dell earnings and look ahead to next week's Fed meeting. Asian and European markets moved up, and the Dow is set to open slightly higher.

U.S.

April's Producer Price Index, due out about an hour before trading begins, will determine direction for techs. The PPI is expected to have declined 0.3 percent in April, compared to a rise of 1.0 percent in March.

Markets will be especially sensitive to the data as it may influence what the Federal Reserve will do to interest rates when it meets Tuesday.

Investors will also be eyeing Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) after it reported an unexpected rise in fiscal first- quarter profits following Thursday's bell.

Applied Signal Technology (Nasdaq: APSG), billserv.com (Nasdaq: BLLS) and Netsol International (Nasdaq: NTWK) are slated to report first quarter results Friday.

One IPO was prepared to brave Friday's market: Sequoia Software (Nasdaq: SQSW), priced at $8 a share.

Stocks which may be among Friday's most active include Dell, TriQuint Semiconductor and Xerox, which confirmed Thursday that its CEO resigned from his post less than a year after taking on the job,

At the Bell

The Dow Jones industrial average may open about 15 points higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index for June futures contracts was up 2 to 1417 at 7:34 a.m. EST in 24-hour electronic trading.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index was up 7 to 454.27.

Asia

Trading in Asia was moving indices up. The Nikkei 225 gained 2.82 to 17,357, Singapore's Strait Times index climbed 1.14 percent to 2,026 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 4.27 percent to 15,111.

Europe

European markets were also moving ahead. London's FTSE 100 grew 0.22 percent to 6,259. The CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.71 percent to 6,425 and the Xetra DAX in Frankfurt rose 1.10 percent to 7,266 at 7:15 a.m. EST.

Reuters contributed to this report.