MARKET PREVIEW: Lucent kicks off another round of earnings

Earnings will continue to flood in Thursday, with mixed results from Lucent kicking off the session. Asian markets were mixed, Europe rose, and the Dow is set to open flat.

U.S.

The earnings just keep on coming Thursday. Companies slated to report quarterly results include: Lucent (NYSE: LU), which announced before the bell it beat estimates, but warned of slower sales growth ahead; Viant (Nasdaq: VIAN), Level 3 (Nasdaq: LVLT), BroadVision (Nasdaq: BVSN), Sun MIcrosystems (Nasdaq: SUNW) , AOL (NYSE: AOL), CNET (Nasdaq: CNET), Phone.com (Nasdaq: PHCM) and PeopleSoft (Nasdaq: PSFT).

The market will get a chance to react to last night's reports as well; IBM (NYSE: IBM), Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) and Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM) results should all see attention.

Fed watchers will be eyeing a testimony from Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan Thursday, awaiting hints on the future of interest rates as he speaks before the Senate.

A couple big European purchases are also in the works; German media conglomerate Bertelsmann is expected to buy cash-strapped CDNow (Nasdaq: CDNW) for $100 million, or about $3 a share, and take on its debt, according to Thursday's Wall Street Journal.

Deutsche Telecom is also reportedly boosting its offer for U.S. mobile-phone operator firm VoiceStream Wireless (Nasdaq: VSTR) to $53 billion.

On the IPO front, Airspan Networks (Nasdaq: AIRN), a manufacturer of fixed wireless access systems priced at $15 per share.

Expect the following technology stocks to be among Thursday's most actively traded issues: About.com, AMD, Check Point Software, Citrix Systems and Qualcomm.

Interest-rate anxiety pushed technology stocks lower Wednesday as the Nasdaq composite shed 121 points to close at 4,056.08. The Dow Jones industrial average shaved off 44 points to finish at 10,696.08.

At the Bell

The Dow Jones industrial average may open flat. The Standard & Poor's 500 index for June futures contracts was up 0.2 to 1500 at 7:46 a.m. EST in 24-hour electronic trading.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index was down 11 to 520.83.

Asia

Trading in Asia was mixed. The Nikkei 225 rose 0.23 to 16,983, Singapore's Strait Times index fell 0.19 percent to 2,133 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.27 percent to 17,758.

Europe

European markets were on the rise. London's FTSE 100 gained 0.15 percent to 6,475. The CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.82 percent to 6,548 and the DAX in Frankfurt was up 0.49 percent to 7,402 at 6:57 a.m. EST.

Reuters contributed to this report.