Reuters Market News
Computer makers up in Europe as U.S. takes holiday
Monday September 2, 7:13 am ET
LONDON, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Wall Street is closed on Monday for the Labor Day holiday, but shares in technology firms Dell Computer (NasdaqNM:DELL - News) and Sun Microsystems (NasdaqNM:SUNW - News) were marginally higher in Europe, ahead of a return to business on Tuesday.
Shares in both companies may have been boosted after research firm IDC said late on Friday that both Dell (XETRA:DELL.DE - News) and Sun (XETRA:SUNW.DE - News) had gained share from the previous year as makers of server computers, large computers used by businesses.
By 1107 GMT, shares in Dell had climbed in light volume to 27.25 euros ($26.79) in Frankfurt, up from a close of $26.62 in New York.
Fellow computer maker Sun Microsystems also made modest gains, trading at 3.78 euros ($3.72), just above a closing price of $3.69 on Friday. Sun has been hit lately after it lowered its revenue outlook for the September quarter and said corporate spending on technology may be weakening.
Among U.S. stock index futures, the September contract for the Dow Jones industrial average was down 0.2 percent, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq contracts were both off 0.7 percent
Last week, the Dow (CBOT:^DJI - News) fell 2.4 percent and the S&P 500 (CBOE:^SPX - News) dropped 2.6 percent, both after five straight weeks of gains.
There are no major corporate results expected when markets re-open on Tuesday, although investors will await news on the health of U.S. manufacturing as the Institute for Supply Management releases its month manufacturing index.
Analysts are expecting the index to rise slightly to 51.6 for August, according to a Reuters poll, compared with a reading of 50.5 in July, the lowest level since January.
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