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MARKET PREVIEW: Techs set for mixed opening

2 min read
Techs look to open mixed, with futures lower but some big names gaining ground before the bell. Asian and European markets were all down, and the Dow is set to open lower.

U.S.

DSL service vendor Covad Communications (Nasdaq: COVD) will be active Tuesday after the company said it will cut 400 employees, or 13 percent of its workforce, in a cost-cutting move.

Nasdaq heavyweight Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) made some gains in pre-session action, after an up and down day Monday, gaining 50 cents to 51.75 in Instinet trading. Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) and Lucent (NYSE: LU) were also up before the bell.

Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL), off 13 cents to 23 in pre-market trading, said it plans to give a top communications post to former White House press secretary Joe Lockhart.

Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) lawyers Monday denied the company held a monopoly or had violated antitrust law, and urged an appeals court to throw out trial judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's lower court ruling that would break it into two separate companies.

Expect the following technology stocks to be among Tuesday's most actively traded issues: Altera (Nasdaq: ALTR), Com21 (Nasdaq: CMTO), Covad Communications (Nasdaq: COVD).

The Nasdaq fell after an early rally Monday and ended the session down 23.89 to 2,880.49. The Dow Jones industrial average ended the session up 75.84 to 10,546.07.

At the Bell

The Dow Jones industrial average is expected to open down 30 points. The Standard & Poor's 500 index for November futures contracts was off 3.8 to 1355 at 7:21 a.m. EST in 24-hour electronic trading.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index fell 2 to 351.66.

Asia

The major Asian markets all fell. The Nikkei 225 dropped 61.52 to 14,658.87 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 36.54 to 14,566.22. Singapore's Strait Times slipped 13.26 to 1,966.26.

Europe

European markets were all off as well. London's FTSE 100 was off 62.90 to 6,311.80, the CAC 40 in Paris lost 60.32 to 6,111.01 and the DAX in Frankfurt dropped 37.7 to 6,659.21 at 7:13 a.m. EST.

Reuters contributed to this report.