MARKET PREVIEW: Techs set to surge

A full bag of earnings and product announcements should steal the headlines back from Microsoft Tuesday, and continue to bolster techs' rally. Asia and Europe were up, and the Dow is set to open higher.

U.S.

After Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) shares fought back a seven point loss to close off only down 1 5/8 at 89 15/16 Monday, the stock should continue to defy those predicting its demise. Tuesday will also be an active day for Microsoft's rivals, who may struggle to repeat yesterday's gains. More than 121 million Microsoft shares traded Monday, about five times the company's average daily volume.

The first of this week's big IPOs is priced to debut. Paul Allen's cable company Charter Communications (Proposed ticker: CHTR), priced at $19, the top of the $17-19 range. Netzee (Proposed ticker: NETZ), which does private label telephone and Internet banking, priced its IPO at $14, the top of its $12 to $14 range.

After getting a rise out of investors yesterday with an advisory it would make a "significant announcemen" at 9 am EST Tuesday, Amazon Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) will have to deliver. According to Tuesday's Wall Street Journal, the Internet retailer plans to sell downloadable software online, as well as anything -- "with a capital A" -- customers might want.

In earnings, Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) is slated to report first quarter results, which are predicted to show the networking equipment maker pulled in 23 cents a share according to First Call.

In economic news, the Commerce Department will report September wholesale inventories just after the market opens. Inventories at factories and warehouses are expected to have risen 0.3 percent in September, the same pace as in August.

Stocks likely to be actively traded Tuesday include Cisco, Charter, Microsoft, Toys "R" Us, Viant and Ariba.

A federal court ruling that Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) is a monopoly gave the stock market an excuse to push tech issues higher Monday. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 41.68 to 3,143.97, the S&P 500 increased 6.78 to 1,377.01, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average picked up 14.37 to 10,718.85. Inter@ctive Week's @100 Index moved up 50.36 to 5,393.77.

At the Bell

The Dow Jones industrial average may open about 83 points higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index for June futures contracts was up 10.8 points to 1394 at 7:41 a.m. EST in 24-hour electronic trading.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index was up 14 to 396.72.

Asia

Trading in Asia moved indexes ahead. The Nikkei 225 rose 0.28 percent to 18,292, Singapore's Strait Times index gained 0.31 percent to 2,118 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 1.10 percent to 13,670.

Europe

European markets also making big gains. London's FTSE 100 rose 1.55 percent to 6,473. The CAC 40 in Paris gained 1.10 percent to 5,050 and the Xetra DAX in Frankfurt was up 1.69 percent to 5,743 at 6:54 a.m. EST.

Reuters contributed to this report.