Gains for U.S. stocks should give us a solid floor today, but we'll see sparse participation from institutional investors wishing to evaluate the outlook for the tech sector,
Foreign investors probably have a full stomach after they swallowed a whole range of Japanese stocks.
Concerns that direction could be a firming of the yen has investors a bit wary of holding export-oriented shares.
After going through volatility in recent trade, not many investors would like to hold their positions through the three-day weekend. And when they square positions, most of them are short following Tokyo's recent downtrend.
Stocks with higher dividends keep luring investors ahead of the fiscal year end.
Investors are betting some sort of policy response (to tackle deflation and banks' bad loans) will emerge as early as today or as late as tomorrow,
Look for retail investors and brokerage dealers to pinpoint individual shares that are liquid and carry a theme.