X

MARKET PREVIEW: Sun warning hits techs

2 min read

A warning from Sun Microsystems will hit the technology sector hard Friday. Asia was up, Europe was down, and the Dow is set to open slightly lower.

U.S.

After storage stocks went down the drain Thursday with warnings from Brocade (Nasdaq: BRCD) and EMC (NYSE: EMC), technology stocks aren't going to get any reassurance from the latest news.

Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW) warned late Thursday that revenue and earnings for its fiscal third quarter would be below estimates due to the slowdown in the U.S. economy. During a conference call with analysts, the servers and network software maker said it now expects earnings of 7 cents to 9 cents per share, or less than half of what Wall Street expected. Sun shares were off $2.06, or 10 percent to $18.75 on the Island ECN.

Expect the following technology stocks to be among Friday's most actively traded issues: Autodesk, BEA Systems and Sun Microsystems.

Technology stocks went on a roller coaster ride Thursday as the Nasdaq composite dropped 24 points to finish at 2,244.98. The Dow Jones industrial average closed basically unchanged, up 0.23 points to 10,526.81.

At the Bell

The Dow Jones industrial average may open 31 points lower. The Standard & Poor's 500 index for June futures contracts was down 3.7 to 1253.80 at 7:35 a.m. EST in 24-hour electronic trading.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index fell 3 to 229.74.

Asia

Trading in Asia was moving up. The Nikkei 225 rose 172.64 to 13,246.00, Singapore's Strait Times index gained 2.24 to 1,946.86 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 181.92 to 1,5280.56.

Europe

European markets were also in the red. London's FTSE 100 fell 51.80 to 5,951.30, the CAC 40 in Paris slipped 54.85 to 5,397.63 and the Xetra DAX in Frankfurt was down 35.85 to 6,242.14 at 7:00 a.m. EST.

Reuters contributed to this report.