THE DAY AHEAD: Market Preview

Techs should continue to inch up Monday on the neutral news that the Federal Reserve is likely to raise rates a mere quarter-point at the end of the month. Asian stocks touched highs and Europe rose slightly. The Dow is set to open higher.

U.S.

Tech earnings will take center stage Monday. Micron Electronics (Nasdaq: MUEI), the direct-PC unit of Micron Technology, is scheduled to report third quarter earnings after the bell. Wall Street is expecting the company to report a profit of 6 cents a share. Cabletron Inc. (NYSE: CS) and Manugistics (Nasdaq: MANU) are also scheduled to report.

Looking to the week ahead, there will also be another batch of Internet IPOs to follow including Juniper Networks and Ariba.

In economic news, the three-day summit of the G7 richest nations plus Russia approved a plan to halt financial speculation blamed for global economic turmoil, and endorsed proposals to improve disclosure by hedge funds. Last September's near-collapse hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management and the recent turmoil sparked by Thailand's 1997 devaluation led to the initiative.

Expect the following technology stocks to be among Monday's most actively traded issues: Brooktrout (Nasdaq: BRKT), Global Telesystems (Nasdaq: GTSG), Multex.com (Nasdaq: MLTX), Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) and Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO), which is reportedly teaming up with stock tracker Instinet to offer electronic trading services.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index edged up 7.43 to 296.

On Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average closed up 13.93 points at 10,855.56, a total gain of 366 for the week. The Nasdaq composite gained 19.29 points to 2,563.40, up 115 for the week. Most of the week's gains were realized Wednesday after the Consumer Price Index for May came in at 0.7 percent, virtually unchanged from April.

At the Bell

The Dow Jones industrial average is set to open about 18 points higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index for June futures contracts was up 2.2 points to 1359 at 7:27 a.m. EST in 24-hour electronic trading.

Asia

A strong Dow and good financial news in Asia swept markets higher. The Nikkei 225 closed up 1.76 percent at 17,738, its highest point since October 1997. Singapore's Strait Times index was up 0.15 percent to 2120, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng surged 4.37 percent to 13994.

Europe

London's FTSE 100 gained 1.16 percent to 6,603 on domestic activity and Hong Kong's gains, the CAC 40 in Paris grew 0.77 percent to 4,574 and the Xetra DAX in Frankfurt rose 2.85 percent to 5,489 at 6:45 a.m. EST.

Reuters contributed to this report.