MARKET PREVIEW: Techs look to rally

The U.S. markets look set to rally Tuesday on the news of a possible end to the election uncertainty and a positive futures outlook. However, news from 3Com and Xilinx may spoil the party. Asian markets were mixed, European markets gained ground and the Dow is set to open higher.

U.S.

Early indications suggest the U.S. Markets are poised for bounce, after two legal decisions appear to make a George W. Bush victory more likely. Decisions from both the Florida Leon County Circuit Court and the U.S. Supreme Court have been cheered by Wall Street, with futures set to open higher.

Expect shares of 3Com to see action on the news that the company expects a wider-than-expected loss in its second quarter. The company says it will miss estimates because its major telecom customers cut back orders and smaller customers either went broke or merged with other firms.

Semiconductor maker Xilinx Inc. (Nasdaq: XLNX), after the bell Monday, cut its outlook for sequential revenue growth in the current quarter, due to weak orders from its large North American customers. Shares of the company, which fell after market close yesterday, may also be impacted by the news that Xilinx has won a patent infringement case against competitor Altera (Nasdaq: ALTR).

According to the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) is attempting to persuade the Federal Trade Commission to impose stricter conditions on the proposed merger of AOL and Time Warner.

Expect the following technology stocks to be among Tuesday's most actively traded issues: DoubleClick (Nasdaq: DCLK), Excite@Home (Nasdaq: ATHM), J.D. Edwards (Nasdaq: JDEC), Natural MicroSystems (Nasdaq: NMSS) and Remec (Nasdaq: REMC).

The Nasdaq closed Monday's session down 29.54 to 2,615.75. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 186.56 to 10,560.10.

At the Bell

The Dow Jones industrial average is expected to open up 90.5 points. The Standard & Poor's 500 index for December futures contracts rose 11.5 to 1342 at 7:21 a.m. EST in 24-hour electronic trading.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index gained 2 to 324.66.

Asia

The major Asian markets were mixed. The Nikkei 225 fell 259.68 to 14,695.05. On the positive side, Hong Kong's Hang Seng inched up 13.97 to 14,573.21 and Singapore's Strait Times rose 22.64 to 1,953.61.

Europe

European markets were in positive territory. London's FTSE 100 was up 100.3 to 6,259.00, the CAC 40 in Paris rose 114.98 to 5,906.49 and the DAX in Frankfurt gained 117.7 to 6,525.80 at 7:08 a.m. EST.

Reuters contributed to this report.