LONDON Technology and media shares led European markets lower at midsession Monday as profit-jittery investors awaited tonight's earnings from Oracle, the first of the big-name U.S. techs to report results.

Telecom equipment maker Marconi set the downhill pace, tumbling 7.8 percent after analysts raised questions about its high debt levels. In a research note Merrill analysts said they believed that two recent Marconi acquisitions were not performing very well and the company may be forced to write down a chunk of the $4.6 billion it paid in goodwill, Reuters reported.

We continue to believe that Marconi and Alcatel have major issues with their underlying businesses and will continue to suffer from margin squeeze,'' Merrill said. Alcatel shares dropped two percent. At 1100 GMT, the pan-European FTSE Eurotop 300 index was off 0.5 percent, while the narrower blue-chip DJ Euro Stoxx 50 fell 0.6 percent.

Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 index futures were both in positive territory, pointing to a higher start for Wall Street.

Oracle will likely be a focus, due after Wall Street closes. After a heavy week of profit warnings, investors will be watching for any clues on the health of the U.S. tech sector.

Back in Europe, media stocks dropped one percent amid persistent worries about falling advertising revenues and talk of a profit warning from Vivendi Universal.

A Vivendi spokesman denied there would be a warning, saying ''first-quarter operating results were excellent and activity in the second quarter leads one to expect a continuation of this trend.'' The stock was off 1.7 percent, although it had been down more than three percent before the company scotched the rumors.

Publicis dropped 5.8 percent while Havas Advertising fell 5.7 percent. BT BOOST

British Telecommunications was among the few bright spots, gaining a modest 0.1 percent after its much-maligned cash call received somewhat better-than-expected interest.

BT said Sunday it sold 89.5 percent of the shares in its 5.9 billion pound ($8.30 billion) rights issue, in a strong show of support for the centerpiece of its debt-slashing plan.

The result leaves the UK telephone company with almost 207 million shares worth nearly 900 million pounds to auction to international investors starting Monday.

It's as good a result as they could have expected,'' said John Tysoe, telecoms analyst at WestLB Panmure. More than 17 percent of BT was in the hands of private investors who typically don't all subscribe to rights issues.''

The strong take-up sets a benchmark for other European telecoms companies, such as KPN Telecom NV of the Netherlands, that are considering selling shares to cut debt.

Shares in KPN, which is reportedly set to decide on its debt-cutting plans today, were up 2.9 percent.