By James Langton

(April 10 – 09:00 ET) – Stocks are poised to open higher this morning on general optimism and a bargain hunting attitude. U.S. stocks are up in the pre-market as investors scoop up beaten down names.

There’s also plenty of talk of a possible Federal Reserve Board inter-meeting rate cut that has some traders feeling buoyant about the U.S. economy and corporate profits. Names such as AT&T Corp., Lucent Technologies Inc., Juniper Networks Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc. are all up.

There’s a good feeling coming from European stocks this morning. Techs and telecom are leading the way. Marconi plc said it will meet analyst estimates for its 2001 profits. That has both Marconi and other techs such as Ericsson AB and Alcatel SA up.

Marconi, along with Siemens AG and Swisscom AG, indicated that they will collectively cut 5,000 jobs as they work to rein in costs. All of this action has Credit Suisse First Boston raising its recommendations on European telcos. Also on the European front, the euro is falling as traders speculate that the European Central Bank won’t lower interest rates tomorrow.

Amidst all this action, the London’s FTSE is up 123 points to 5,786. In Paris, the CAC 40 has gained 122 points to 5,305. Germany’s DAX is up 114 points to 5,895.

Overnight in Asia, stocks were mixed. In Japan, the Nikkei dropped 222 points to 12,620. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng added 12 points to close at 12,214.