MARKET PREVIEW: Techs still hung up on Florida

Wall Street will be looking to south Florida again Monday as the Florida Supreme Court will rule on the admissibility of hand-counted ballots in certain counties. Asian and European markets were mixed, and the Dow is set to open higher.

U.S.

Wall Street will await a key decision in the U.S. Presidential election Monday. Lawyers for Al Gore go to Florida's highest court hoping to persuade the seven justices that ballots from the ongoing hand count in three Democratic counties should be included in the state's final presidential vote tally.

Shares of Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) were down in pre-session trading as investors reacted to the news that executive vice president Gary Bloom was leaving to head up Veritas Software (Nasdaq: VRTS).

Online car seller Autoweb.com (Nasdaq: AWEB) will also get some attention after announcing late Friday that it will cut its workforce by about 25 percent, in a cost-cutting move expected to save more than $10 million annually.

Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW) shares may also be active Monday. The stock finished higher in heavy trading Friday after after analysts gave the computer maker tentative thumbs up after the company said it would meet earnings estimates.

Expect the following technology stocks to be among Monday's most actively traded issues: Autoweb.com (Nasdaq: AWEB), Commerce One (Nasdaq: CMRC), WorldCom (Nasdaq: WCOM).

Tech stocks ended the day in negative territory Friday as the Nasdaq composite dropped 4.69 to 3,027.19. The Dow Jones industrial average also ended the session down 26.16 to 10,629.87.

At the Bell

The Dow Jones industrial average is expected to open up 10 points. The Standard & Poor's 500 index for November futures contracts rose 1.30 to 1,371.80 at 7:19 a.m. EST in 24-hour electronic trading.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index was unchanged at 385.22.

Asia

Trading in Asia was mixed. The Nikkei 225 was off 12.65 to 14,531.65 and Singapore's Strait Times index shed 19.35 to 1,934.19. Hong Kong's Hang Seng, however, shot up 165.81 to 15,346.66.

Europe

European markets were uncertain as well. London's FTSE 100 lost 4.90 to 6,435.20 and the CAC 40 in Paris slipped 10.60 to 6,151.32. The DAX in Frankfurt was up slightly, 1.17 to 6,753.46, at 7:08 a.m. EST.

Reuters contributed to this report.