MARKET PREVIEW: Techs stuffing a lot of action in short week

With the Thanksgiving holiday shortening the week, techs should find momentum in an action-packed Monday. Asia was mixed, Europe was up, and the Dow is set to open slightly lower.

U.S.

Now that economic news isn't fraught with interest rate anticipation, techs will be focused on corporate news and deal-making. Cabletron Systems (NYSE: CS) has reached an agreement to sell its Internet-equipment business to Efficient Networks (Nasdaq: EFNT) in an all-stock deal valued at about $860 million.

Excite@Home (Nasdaq: ATHM) should also get some attention after announcing that it plans to establish a tracking stock for its Internet media assets

Merger Monday wouldn't be complete without Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) stealing some headlines; the federal judge in the antitrust case appointed a mediator to seek an out-of-court settlement between the company and the U.S. Justice Department.

Expect the following technology stocks to be among Monday's most actively traded issues: Cabletron Systems, Excite@Home, Exodus Communications, Hewlett-Packard, Metricom and Microsoft.

Blue-chip stocks retreated a bit Friday but the tech sector kept on rolling, pushing the Nasdaq composite up 22 points to a record close of 3,369.13.

At the Bell

The Dow Jones industrial average may open about 22 points lower. The Standard & Poor's 500 index for June futures contracts was down 2.8 points to 1424 at 7:41 a.m. EST in 24-hour electronic trading.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index was up 3 to 444.97.

Asia

Trading in Asia was mixed. The Nikkei 225 rose 1.35 percent to 18,822, Singapore's Strait Times index slipped 0.45 percent to 2,215 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 1.41 percent to 15,285.

Europe

European markets were moving up. London's FTSE 100 rose 0.92 percent to 6,542. The CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.66 percent to 5,298 and the Xetra DAX in Frankfurt was up 0.26 percent to 5,972 at 6:54 a.m. EST.

Reuters contributed to this report.