Techs in the Hot Seat

Investors will turn their attention to technology earnings reports this week, hoping that early warnings of a spending slowdown turn out to be greatly exaggerated.

Yahoo and IBM will report their quarterly results after the close on Tuesday. Investors are looking for earnings of $1.29 on sales of $21.89 billion from Big Blue, with sales flat but profitability boosted by the sale of its struggling PC unit to Lenovo. Yahoo is expected to report earnings of 11 cents a share on a 30% jump in sales to $1.14 billion.

Intel , eBay and Apple will release their results late Wednesday. Analysts are looking for earnings of 44 cents and a 25% sales jump to $4.4 billion for Apple, whose shares have been hit hard since reporting disappointing results earlier this year. Piper Jaffray said Monday it expects strong Mac sales, but slightly weak iPod sales.

eBay is expected to report 30% sales growth to $1.41 billion and earnings of 24 cents. Struggling Intel is expected to deliver earnings of 14 cents on a 10% decline in sales to $8.3 billion.

On Thursday, investors will be looking for 84% sales growth from Google to $1.64 billion, and earnings of $2.21 a share. Microsoft is expected to report earnings of 30 cents a share on a 14% increase in sales to $11.63 billion, but investors may be more interested in when Windows Vista will appear and how the transition at the top is going.

Stocks were little changed Monday, as hopes for peace in the Mideast ended a steep three-day losing streak.

The Nasdaq was unchanged at 2037, the S&P 500 lost 2 to 1234, and the Dow gained 8 to 10,747. Volume declined to 2.15 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.55 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led 19-13 on the NYSE, and 19-11 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 60% on the NYSE, and 45% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 24-162 on the NYSE, and 29-211 on the Nasdaq.

Magic Software soared 65% on a deal with IBM.

CDC gained 9% after raising guidance.

CSC lost 4% on a downgrade.