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MARKET PREVIEW: Techs hope for bounce

2 min read
U.S. markets will digest a strong performance from EDS on Thursday, as the Nasdaq hopes for a post-Cisco bounce. Europe markets moved up while trading in Asia was mixed. Early indicators have the Dow set to open higher.

United States
Electronic Data Systems (NYSE: EDS) will be a stock to keep an eye on. After yesterday's close, the company topped analysts' earnings estimates by 2 cents, and said its comfortable with analyst forecasts for the first quarter and 2001. Shares of EDS moved higher in pre-session trading.

General Semiconductor (NYSE: SEM) met reduced analyst estimates Thursday, and said that first-quarter revenue will fall between 6 percent and 9 percent sequentially.

Companies scheduled to report earnings today include telecom player WorldCom (Nasdaq: WCOM), Network Appliance (Nasdaq: NTAP) and Razorfish (Nasdaq: RAZF).

Two economic indicators are on tap for today. The January sales report from retail store chains along with the Labor Department's weekly report on new jobless claims are scheduled for release this morning.

Expect the following technology stocks to be among Thursday's most actively traded issues: Barnes&Noble.com (Nasdaq: BNBN), Electronic Data Systems (NYSE: EDS) and NetZero (Nasdaq: NZRO).

After being down triple-digits during the session, the Nasdaq rebounded Wednesday to close down 56.67 points to 2,607.82. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 10.70 points to 10,946.72.

At the bell
The Dow Jones industrial average is expected to open up 19 points. The Standard & Poor's 500 futures index rose 2.4 to 1351.90, above fair value, at 7:19 a.m. EST in 24-hour electronic trading.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index slipped 12 to 277.77.

Asia
The major Asian markets were mixed. Hong Kong's Hang Seng and the Nikkei 225 both posted triple-digit losses, down 140.07 to 15,909.40 and 227.78 to 13,138.23, respectively. Singapore's Straights Times rose 39.69 to 1,,982.34.

Europe
European markets traded lower. London's FTSE 100 inched up 2.70 to 6,228.30, the CAC 40 in Paris gained 39.09 to 5,791.23 and the DAX in Frankfurt moved up 64.95 to 6,643.91 at 7:10 a.m. EST.

Reuters contributed to this report.