Preopen Trading: Tech Looks Set to Try for Comeback

The past two sessions have looked like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, featuring an exorbitant body count and such extreme horror that investors were wondering if it all really happened. Of course, the 9.2% fall in the Nasdaq Composite Index over the past two sessions has been a very real experience for portfolios.

For today, at least, markets look like they're putting away the chainsaws.

Stock futures were right around their breakeven numbers, while foreign markets were taking their stage direction from yesterday's stumble here in the States.

S&P 500 futures on Globex, an electronic exchange where both currency and index futures trade, were up less than a point to 1285.4. They were about 3 points above fair value, a mathematical level that expresses the correct relation between futures and the index that those futures cover. Nasdaq 100 futures, which track large-cap tech stocks, were off a point to 2129, which is really 27 points above fair value. Signs are positive, then, for the market since fair value is a good gauge of how stocks will trade in early action. ...