** S&P 500 telecom sector <.SPLRCL> higher, led by AT&T Inc <T.N>, a day ahead of court decision on whether or not it can go through with its proposed purchase of Time Warner <TWX.N>
** AT&T last up 1.4 pct at $34.31. Trading volume 0.7 x 10-DMA. Time Warner shares last up 0.8 pct at $96.15
** A federal judge will decide Tuesday if telecom operator AT&T, which also owns satellite TV service DirecTV, can go ahead with an $85 bln deal to buy Time Warner, home to CNN and March Madness basketball
** "There's so much anticipation of tomorrow's verdict that its hard not to assign the move to anticipation of Judge Leon's decision. The market seems to be assigning 80/20 odds to an AT&T win. I'm more skeptical. I think its closer to 50/50," said Craig Moffett, senior analyst at MoffettNathanson
** If the deal is approved it likely raises the chances that a proposed merger of the third and fourth biggest U.S. wireless service providers Sprint Corp <S.N> and T-Mobile US <TMUS.O> will succeed in passing regulators, according to Moffett
** Sprint last up 0.7 pct, T-Mobile US up 0.1 pct
** Among other telecom index stocks on Mon, Verizon Communications <VZ.N> up 0.7 pct, while CenturyLink <CTL.N> gained 0.6 pct
** YTD, telecom sector down 8.4 pct vs S&P 500 <.SPX> 4.3 pct rise
