Tech Stocks Get M&A Kick

Stocks crawled toward a mixed open Friday as the possibility of a transatlantic telecom merger goosed the tech sector but did little for blue chips.

Index futures recently showed the S&P 500 trading a point below fair value, while the Nasdaq 100 was set for a 5-point gain. The 10-year Treasury bond was up 1/32 in price to yield 4.73%, while the dollar rose against the yen and euro.

Late Thursday, telecom equipment suppliers Lucent(LU Quote) and Alcatel(ALA Quote) confirmed they are discussing a merger, reprising negotiations that broke off five years ago over the issue of who would acquire whom.

The merger talks extend a wave of consolidation that has swept telecom in recent months, the last example being AT&T's(T Quote) agreement to acquire BellSouth(BLS Quote). The latest linkup is being billed as a merger of equals, even though Alcatel's market capitalization is about 40% greater than Lucent's.

Also supporting tech was the placement of Google(GOOG Quote) into the S&P 500, a move that will require index fund managers to buy the stock. The elevation of Google, whose $101 billion market cap makes it one of the biggest U.S. tech companies, has been rumored for months.

Oil was little changed after sprinting toward $64 a barrel Thursday on concerns about the reliability of supplies from Nigeria and Iran. In electronic Nymex trading, crude for May delivery was down 11 cents to $63.80.

Higher energy and bond yields meant pain for stocks on Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 0.4% to 11,270 and the Nasdaq Composite losing 0.1% to 2300. For the month to date, the Dow is up 2.5%, while the S&P 500 has risen 1.6% and the Nasdaq has gained just under 1%.

Overseas markets were mostly higher. London's FTSE 100 was recently up 0.6% to 6025, while Germany's Xetra DAX rose 0.3% to 5962. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei added 0.4% overnight to 16,561, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng eased 0.4% to 15,716.

To view David Peltier's video take on today's premarket action, click here.