Monday morning hangover for European markets

NEWS While the FTSE 100 remained reasonably steady, the TechMARK index was down 32 points, or almost two per cent by 9.00am (BST). The fall was led by network hardware maker Marconi, down 7.2 per cent on heavy trading under speculation it's to cut over 1,000 jobs. Other losers included chipmaker ARM, down 9.6 per cent, and IT services company Misys, down eight per cent. Telcos fared better, with Vodafone rising one per cent out of the gate, and BT just marginally down. The news followed a bad day of falls for tech companies in the US on Friday, with the Nasdaq down 64 points, or 3.6 per cent, to close at 1720 points. The market was absorbing a profit warning from networking company Sycamore Networks which drove all the network equipment providers down - Cisco, JDS Uniphase and Juniper Networks all falling nearly ten per cent. US non-farming employment figures were also unveiled on Friday, showing further evidence of a serious slowdown in the US economy. The number out of work has risen by 0.1 per cent, or 86,000 people, to reside at 4.3 per cent.