MARKET PREVIEW: Dell may ding techs

Another earnings warning from Dell's will weigh on techs Monday. Asian markets traded on the positive side, European markets slipped and the Dow is set to open lower.

U.S.

Dell Computer Corp. (Nasdaq: DELL) warned Monday that its fourth quarter earnings would fall short of Wall Street estimates due to a slumping PC market and the slowing economy. The company, which previously warned back in October, said it now expects profits of 18 to 19 cents a share in the quarter, well off the Street's forecast of 25 cents a share.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) has agreed to license chipmaker LSI Logic Corp.'s (NYSE: LSI) digital signal processor, or DSP, technology. The deal, terms of which were not released, boosts LSI's efforts to create an industry standard for the DSP chips.

Drugstore.com (Nasdaq: DSCM) said on Friday that its CFO had resigned and that it will cut another 125 jobs in a continuing effort to reach profitability. The company also reports its fourth-quarter results Monday.

Other tech companies reporting today include Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN)and chip maker Vitesse Semiconductor (Nasdaq: VTSS).

The Conference Board's Index of Leading Indicators for December will be released shortly after the market opens. Briefing.com's survey of economists forecasts a drop of 0.3 percent, following a 0.2 percent decline in the previous month.

Expect the following technology stocks to be among Monday's most "http:="" www.zdii.com="" industry_list.asp?mode="news&doc_id=ZE507272&pic=Y"" rel="">actively traded issues: Drugstore.com (Nasdaq: DSCM), Interland (Nasdaq: ILND), Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) and Vitesse Semiconductor (Nasdaq: VTSS).

The Nasdaq managed to end Friday's session in positive territory, up 1.89 to 2,770.38, while the Dow Jones industrial average lost 90.69 to 10,587.59.

At the Bell

The Dow Jones industrial average is expected to open down 19.7 points. The Standard & Poor's 500 futures index slipped 2.50 to 1346, below fair value, at 7:21 a.m. EST in 24-hour electronic trading.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index was unchanged at 320.10.

Asia

The major Asian markets moved up. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 165.72 to 16,099.27, the Nikkei 225 rose 43.3 to 14,032.42 and Singapore's Strait Times inched up 4.09 to 1,910.98.

Europe

European markets were trading lower. London's FTSE 100 lost 29.10 to 6,180.20, the CAC 40 in Paris slipped 19.81 to 5,825.92 and the DAX in Frankfurt shed 38.33 to 6,613.20 at 7:12 a.m. EST.

Reuters contributed to this report.