STOCKS TO WATCH: AT&T, Citrix Systems, Ebay and Visio

AT&T got some bad news late Friday when the Federal Communications Commission on Friday blocked it from increasing a monthly fee that the No. 1 long distance carrier adds to its bills to cover the cost of federal universal service subsidies.

AT&T had planned to increase its 99 cent per month fee to $1.50 to account for recent increases in its subsidy payments, which go to lower the cost of local phone service in rural and low-income areas.

In a release issued on Friday, the FCC's common carrier bureau questioned the reasonableness of the increase and suspended AT&T's increase.

Under FCC rules, long distance carriers may pass along to their customers the subsidy payments they owe. The agency requires that any fees accurately reflect the payments the carriers owe.

AT&T shares closed up 3/4 to 46 3/4 Friday.

The supplier of system software for server-based computing while get a shot in the arm Monday after Standard's & Poor's said it will replace Mobil Corp. (NYSE: MOB) in the S&P 500 Index.

Citrix replaces Mobil because the petroleum manufacturer is being acquired by another S&P 500 component, Exxon Corp. (NYSE: XON).

Two weeks ago, Citrix slipped past analysts' estimates by a penny a share, earnings $34.2 million, or 35 cents a share, on sales of $105.8 million.

Citrix shares gained 2 3/16 to 64 1/8 Friday.

The company which has persuaded millions of Americans to trade everything from Beanie Babies to high-school yearbooks online, now is betting that U.S. corporations are eager to sell their odds and ends over the Internet, too.

In one of its first equity investments in another company, eBay is co-leading a $22 million venture-capital investment in TradeOut.com Inc., which runs an online marketplace for corporate surplus materials, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. This also affects competitor VerticalNet (Nasdaq: VERT).

Visio should be interesting to watch Monday after it received a request from the U.S. Department of Justice for additional information in connection with regulatory filings relating to its proposed acquisition with Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT).

The deal, announced in September with a value of $1.3 billion in stock, marks Microsoft's largest to date. Seattle-based Visio, a maker of technical drawing software, will become a division within Microsoft's business productivity group, which includes the Office suite of products, the software giant's biggest and most profitable business line.

Vision said in a release that both companies are required to supply additional information and documentation to comply with the request. The request extends the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act for a period ending 20 days after the parties have supplied the information.

A special meeting of Visio shareholders has been scheduled for Dec. 13, to vote for approval of the merger agreement. ``This kind of request is fairly routine in a transaction of this size,'' Jeremy Jaech, president and chief executive officer of Visio Corp., said in a statement.

Its shares closed up 15/32 to 39 19/32 Friday.

Reuters contributed to this report.>