MARKET PREVIEW: Techs welcome earnings

Earnings season steps into high gear Monday, as investors prepare for a packed week. Asian and European markets moved up, and the Dow is set to open lower.

U.S.

Lattice Semiconductor (Nasdaq: LSCC), Copper Mountain (Nasdaq: CMTN), Go2Net (Nasdaq: GNET), Novellus Systems (Nasdaq: NVLS) are just a few of the companies kicking off earnings Monday. Things are just getting warmed up for Tuesday though, when Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), Apple (Nasdaq: APPL), DoubleClick (Nasdaq: DCLK) and a load of other big-name techs report.

Expect the following technology stocks to be among Monday's most actively traded issues: Acclaim Entertainment, Mercator Software and Sprint.

Technology stocks closed out a strong week with impressive gains Friday as the Nasdaq composite rallied up 71 points to 4,245.99. The Dow Jones industrial average moved up 23 points to close at 10,812.05.

At the Bell

The Dow Jones industrial average may open about 11 points lower. The Standard & Poor's 500 index for June futures contracts was down 1.5 to 1523 at 7:26 a.m. EST in 24-hour electronic trading.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index was up 16 to 542.95.

Asia

Trading in Asia was moving up. The Nikkei 225 rose 0.84 to 17,286.83, Singapore's Strait Times index rose 1.35 percent to 2,107 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 1.41 percent to 17,834.

Europe

European markets were also moving ahead. London's FTSE 100 rose 0.36 percent to 6,498. The CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.52 percent to 6,604 and the DAX in Frankfurt was up 1.17 percent to 7,403 at 6:57 a.m. EST.

Reuters contributed to this report.