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MARKET PREVIEW: Techs eye more ceconomic data

2 min read

Techs will be eyeing economic data Monday, and looking out for news to move them out of the slump triggered by Greenspan's comments Friday. Asia was mixed, Europe was down, and the Dow is set to open flat to slightly lower.

U.S.

The market never came out of the red Friday after Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said that central banks must pay closer attention to equity markets when determining interest rates. He avoided commenting on whether he thinks U.S. stock prices are overvalued at the gathering in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

On the economic front, investors are already eyeing Tuesday's data on consumer confidence and Friday's report on August employment. The Commerce Department will release data on July new home sales Monday morning. The number of new homes were built last month is expected to have declined slightly to 909,000, from 929,000 a month earlier.

Expect the following technology stocks to be among Monday's movers: AT&T Corp. (NYSE: T) CompUSA Inc. (NYSE: CPU), 1-800-Flowers.com (Nasdaq: FLWS) and Lycos Inc. (Nasdaq: LCOS).

Technology stocks fell after Alan Greenspan spoke Friday, though not quite as far as the rest of the market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 108.28 to 11,090.17, the S&P 500 dropped 13.74 to 1,348.27, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite retreated 15.73 to 2,758.89 to close out the week.

At the Bell

The Dow Jones industrial average may open about 7 points lower. The Standard & Poor's 500 index for June futures contracts was down 0.8 points to 1351 at 7:15 a.m. EST in 24-hour electronic trading.

Asia

Trading in Asia was mixed. The Nikkei 225 rose 1.82 percent to 17,919, Singapore's Strait Times index lost 0.15 percent to 2,151 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 2.28 percent to 13,689.

Europe

European markets were looking down. London's FTSE 100 slipped 0.14 percent to 6,375. The CAC 40 in Paris lost 0.25 percent to 4,631 and the Xetra DAX in Frankfurt was down 0.95 percent to 5,369 at 6:50 a.m. EST.

Reuters contributed to this report.