By James Langton

(February 23 – 09:00 ET) – The markets could be in for another rough morning. Motorola Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc. came out this morning with earnings warnings that are hitting techs and telecoms in early U.S. futures trading.

There’s no major economic news out today.

In Europe, stocks are down sharply with telecoms such as Alcatel SA and Nokia Oyj leading the way down, following the news from Motorola and Sun news. The FTSE in London has dropped 80 points to 5922. The Paris CAC 40 is down 132 points to 5320. The German DAX is off 109 points to 6169.

On the M&A front, Equity Office Properties Trust, the largest U.S.
office-property owner, is buying Spieker Properties Inc. for about US$7.2 billion in cash, stock and assumed debt.

Liberty Media Corp. and Klesch & Co. have agreed to buy 55% interests in six of Deutsche Telekom AG’s cable-television businesses. Nor price has been disclosed.

The Asian markets ended the week on an up note , avoiding the latest profit scare. The Nikkei finished the week up 173 points to 13246. The Hang Seng added 182 points to 15281.