U.S stock futures are indicating a higher open after a sharp sell-off on Friday and ahead of some housing data due out today to start a busy week full of economic data and a Federal Reserve policy meeting. A General Motors upgrade and lower crude prices could be contributing to the overall sentiment at this time in the morning.

On Friday, stocks tumbled due to global interest rate concerns and the downfall of two Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC) mortgage backed hedge funds. Bear Stearns announced it would bail out the funds, but the issue highlighted potential problems arising from the subprime mortgage sector.

Overseas, several Asian markets ended lower for a second day, while shares in China and Hong Kong ended lower on late selling after a strong recent rally. Taiwan, on the other hand, ended at a seven-year record high. Meanwhile, European shares started their trading day lower as well as continued concerns about global interest rate levels and the U.S. sub-prime mortgage market weighed on sentiment.

Today, Treasury prices have so far been little changed this morning. Oil prices fell today after labor unions halted a strike in Nigeria.
May existing home sales from the National Association of Realtors is due at 10 a.m. ET Monday. According to briefing.com, economists expect May sales to have ticked up to 6 million from 5.99 million in April.
Investors await a busy week full of economic reports including more data on the housing market, first-quarter GDP numbers and consumer confidence and spending data. On Wednesday, the Fed will begin its two day meeting to decide its monetary policy and decide on interest rates. The FOMC policy statement will be released Thursday at 2:15 pm. Trading might be somewhat more volatile until then.

Corporate news:

General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) was upgraded by Goldman Sachs from Neutral to Buy and raised the target price from $29 to $42. As GM is negotiating a contract with its union this year, the analyst thinks the company will be able to negotiate a better contract than the market expects. GM shares are up nearly 2% in pre-market trading (5:23 am).

Less than a week after Yahoo! Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO) replaced the top job as Jerry Yang became the CEO, replacing Terry Semel, the company announced yesterday Wenda Millard, chief sales officer in the U.S., is leaving the company to become president of media at Martha Stewart Living Omninedia, Inc. (NYSE: MSO). The company also said it is merging continues its search and display advertising departments in the U.S. to be headed by David Karnstedt.

According to reports yesterday, Dow Jones & Co. Inc. (NYSE: DJ) and News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) are actually close to an agreement regarding the journalistic independence of The Wall Street Journal if News Corp. indeed acquired Dow Jones. Still, the Bancroft family is another matter, and despite reaching a pact, there's no guarantee the controlling family would agree to the sale.

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