MARKET PREVIEW: Earnings watch

Jan. 2, 2002 4:43 p.m. PT

2 min read

Earnings season picks up speed Wednesday, though it may not make a difference to techs still caught in the valuation downdraft. Asian and European markets moved up, and the Dow is set to open slightly higher.

U.S.

After nose-diving again Tuesday, the Nasdaq is now back to where it started the year, hovering just above 4,000.

Earnings reports from Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD), Ariba (Nasdaq: ARBA), Check Point (Nasdaq: CHKP), E*Trade Group Inc. (Nasdaq: EGRP), Seagate (NYSE: SEG), and Women.com (Nasdaq: WOMN) should keep techs busy Tuesday. Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), which is preparing to merge with AOL (NYSE: AOL) will also report quarterly results.

On the IPO front, Corillian Corp. (Nasdaq: CORI), which provides software and professional services to financial Web sites and online financial service providers priced shares at $8 each. Contract manufacturer DDi Corp (Nasdaq: DDIC) priced at $14 per share, below its initial range.

Expect the following technology stocks to be among Wednesday's most actively traded issues: E-Tek Dynamics, Rogue Wave, StarMedia and Terayon.

Technology stocks were roughed up again Tuesday as investors continued their rotation out of the sector in favor of stable blue-chip and cyclical stocks. The Nasdaq composite closed off 132 points to 4,055.90. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 101 points to 11,287.08.

At the Bell

The Dow Jones industrial average may open about 19 points higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index for June futures contracts was down 2.5 points to 1521 at 7:31 a.m. EST in 24-hour electronic trading.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index was down 26 to 540.47.

Asia

Asian markets were moving forward. The Nikkei 225 rose 1.51 percent to 20,833, Singapore's Strait Times index gained 0.19 percent to 2,135 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.54 percent to 16,577.

Europe

European markets were also gaining. London's FTSE 100 rose 0.58 percent to 6,416. The CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.54 percent to 1,6577 and the Xetra DAX in Frankfurt was up 0.75 percent to 7,498 at 7:11 a.m. EST.

Reuters contributed to this report.