Yesterday, markets ended the day on an upbeat note following some merger and acquisition activity. Yet volume remained low and investors tight. It was only with half hour remaining in the session that investors showed up again.

The Commerce Dept. reported yesterday that new home sales unexpectedly rose 4.6% in May to a stronger than expected annual rate of 1.23 mln units. This indicates that the economy is still holding up despite rising interest rates. Bonds have weakened due to the report with 10-yr note closing at a yield of 5.23%, only two basis points from the expected overnight lending rate the Fed might raise Thursday.

Today, June Consumer Confidence and May Existing Home Sales will be released at 10:00 a.m. with consensus expectation of 103.9 (increase) and 6.61 million (decrease) respectively.

Overseas, European and Asian markets were mixed to lower.

Oil is up ahead of the weekly U.S. fuel inventory report tomorrow and treasury prices are already falling, bringing the yield up on a 10-year note to 5.24% compared to 5.23% yesterday.

General Motors announced after the close yesterday that 35,000 of its hourly employees had accepted one of various buyout or retirement offers. 12,600 will retire at Delphi.

Futures are negative in early morning trading.  With Oil prices up and the FOMC meeting looming just ahead, the market is expected to open slightly lower.

Here's a look at some key Blogging Stocks:

Google (GOOG) is down 6 cents in pre-market trading to $404.80 as of 7:40 a.m. Google could very well be a competitor in the movie download business. Google is set to introduce a test version of its online-payment service as early as this week, competing directly with eBay.

Microsoft (MSFT) is up 50 cents to $23 as of 7:16 a.m. The European Union's top antitrust regulator is set to issue a formal ruling finding Microsoft Corp. guilty of breaking EU competition rules. Microsoft could face fines of up to 2 million euros ($2.51 million) a day.

Yahoo! (YHOO) is up 33 cents to $31.70 as of 7:41 a.m. Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc., AOL and two other U.S. Internet companies late on Monday said they are joining forces to fight the distribution of child pornography on the Web.

eBay (EBAY) is down 17 cents to $29.83 as of 7:05 a.m. It seems the Warren Buffett Lunch auction is down to two bidders fastisslow and mpabrai with the current bid at $502,400.00. Google is set to introduce a test version of its online-payment service as early as this week, competing directly with eBay.