Preopen Trading: Futures Down, With Telcos Under Pressure in Europe

No communication breakdown here: Telcos were suffering in Europe and transferred that negative energy to Nasdaq 100 futures.

Nasdaq 100 futures were lately down 50 to 3800, or about 50 points below fair value as calculated by TheStreet.com. S&P 500 futures on Globex were also lately sliding lower. They were down 5 to 1464, or about 6 points below fair value, as calculated by Prudential Securities.

Yesterday, Sprint(FON Quote - Cramer on FON - Stock Picks) said its third-quarter earnings would miss estimates. The announcement sparked selling in the telecom sectors of Europe's major indices. France's CAC 40 lately declined almost 2%, Germany's Xetra Dax sunk 1.7% and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was 1.6% lower. Tech stocks, including telcos of course, were the root of the Asian markets problems today. Japan's Nikkei 225 lost 0.9% overnight, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 3.2%. (See today's Asian Markets Update for more).

In preopen trading on Instinet, Nokia(NOK Quote - Cramer on NOK - Stock Picks) was doing its best to keep up the downward vibe in telcos. It was lately at $41.38, down $2.31 from yesterday's closing price of $43.69. WorldCom(WCOM Quote - Cramer on WCOM - Stock Picks) was trying to fight the dark side's pull and was recently trading at $27.50, up 19 cents.

On Island preopen trading, Lernout & Hauspie(LHSP Quote - Cramer on LHSP - Stock Picks) was trading at $18, down $3.25 from its closing price yesterday, on news in The Wall Street Journal that the Securities and Exchange Commission was launching a formal probe into the company's accounting practices.

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For Wednesday's postclose trading, see The Night Watch.