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MARKET PREVIEW: Techs eye Cisco, IBM, Microsoft news

2 min read

Cisco earnings, IBM talk, and a Microsoft announcement could move techs Wednesday, though investors are still likely to hold back ahead of the upcoming Fed meeting. Asian markets were down, Europe was mixed, and the Dow is set to open slightly higher.

U.S.

Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) is back, trading up in Europe overnight. Cisco answered questions about its valuation and growth with a strong third quarter. The networking equipment-maker posted better-than- expected earnings after the bell Tuesday.

Earnings on deck for Wednesday include reports from Applied Materials (Nasdaq: AMAT), Safeguard Scientifics (NYSE: SFE), QLogic Corporation (Nasdaq: QLGC) and 24/7 Media (Nasdaq: TFSM).

IBM (NYSE: IBM) may also see some upside from yesterday's news; chairman and chief executive Lou Gerstner said in an analyst meeting that core business is looking strong for its second half. The Y2K hangover is history.

The next Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) move in its antitrust trial is a formal response to regulators' break-up proposals, is also due Wednesday.

Stocks to watch on Wednesday include Cisco, Activision, IBM and Teligent:

The Nasdaq Composite Index closed down 84.54 to 3,584.84. The S&P 500 slipped 12.03 to 1,412.14. The Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated 66.88 to 10,536.75.

At the Bell

The Dow Jones industrial average may open about 14 points higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index for June futures contracts was down 1.9 to 1421 at 7:31 a.m. EST in 24-hour electronic trading.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index was down 7 to 473.4.

Asia

Trading in Asia was moving down. The Nikkei 225 fell 0.80 to 17,701, Singapore's Strait Times index slipped 1.54 percent to 2,047 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 1.92 percent to 14,492.

Europe

European markets were mixed. London's FTSE 100 climbed 0.55 percent to 6,157. The CAC 40 in Paris slipped 0.15 percent to 6,350 and the Xetra DAX in Frankfurt was down 0.17 percent to 7,268 at 7:15 a.m. EST.

Reuters contributed to this report.