Stocks may start on a positive note today as stock futures are higher in early in the morning. The media sector will undoubtedly continue to be in focus following News Corp's offer for Dow Jones yesterday ant Time Warner reporting this morning. Economic data keeps coming in ahead of Friday's payroll report.

Yesterday U.S. stocks closed higher with the Dow Jones Industrials average hitting yet another record high. Lower oil prices and data showing manufacturing expansion helped offset the still slumping housing market. But what everybody was talking about since David Faber broke the news on CNBC around 11:30 a.m. was the unsolicited offer News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) made for Dow Jones (NYSE: DJ), parent of the Wall Street Journal. The $5 billion offer, or $60 a share caused DJ shares to jump over 57% and trading to halt for a while.

Today, investors will continue to examine News Corp's offer and analyze every bit of news. Already the some members of the Bancroft family, Dow Jone's controlling shareholders, said they would oppose the deal. The whole media and newspaper world will be in focus with several newspapers gaining yesterday following the deal.

Economic data is thin and includes March factory orders, due at 10:00 a.m., which is expected to show orders rose 2.1% in March after a 1% gain in February.
Later in the morning, weekly crude inventories will be released.

Overseas, Turkish markets finally recovered after the prime minister called early general elections to ease tensions with the military and proposed changes to the constitution.
European stocks gained after several better-than-expected earnings reports and speculation of takeovers among publishers. Asian stocks closed higher.

In corporate news:
The New York Times reported yesterday that Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE: CVC) is near a deal to sell the company to its founding family, the Dolans, for about $10.5 billion in cash. CVC shares are up over 10% in after hours trading.

Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) reported first-quarter profit that beat Wall Street expectations, boosted by a double digit growth in AOL and cable service. Earnings fell to $1.2 billion, or 31 cents per share. Excluding one-time gains, profits was 22 cents per share, above analyst estimates of 20 cents per share. Revenue rose 9% to $11.2 billion, while analysts on average were expecting $11.1 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.