Stock futures fell early Tuesday morning, ahead of an inflation reading at the wholesale level. It is rising prices, as well as the worse housing slump in over a century that caused Home Depot's profit to decline 66% when it reported this morning. Other retailers are scheduled to report earnings today, and the concern is many will show they face similar problems.

U.S. stocks ended mixed on Monday despite rising quite steadily until 1:30 p.m. EDT. While leading economic indicators alleviated some concerns over the economy, record crude oil prices, once again, dampened the mood on the Street and the Dow industrials rose 41 points, or 0.32%, the S&P 500 added a point, or 0.09%, but the Nasdaq Composite dropped 12 points, or 0.50%.

Producer price index, a gauge of inflation at the wholesale level, is due out in about an hour, at 8:30 a.m. EDT. The data is expected to show a 0.4% rise in April. Excluding food and energy, core-PPI is expected to show a rise of 0.2% in April.

In focus at the moment are Home Depot (NYSE: HD) earnings. The home improvement retailer reported a 66% drop in first-quarter profit Tuesday due to a large one-time charge and continued weakness in the housing market. Excluding the charge, though, the results -- 41 cents a share -- beat expectations of 37 cents a share. Home Depot also said revenue in the quarter fell 3.4% and same-store sales fell 6.5% in the first quarter.

Staples Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLS) posted a slim 1.5% increase in its first-quarter profit, for the first time in two quarters. The results matched analysts expectations. Sales rose 6%, beating estimates, and the company reaffirmed its profit and sales forecast for the full year.
On Monday afternoon Staples brought its $2.5 billion hostile takeover bid for Corporate Express NV directly to the Dutch office products firm's shareholders.

Among other retailers also due to report before the bell Tuesday is Target (NYSE: TGT).

Also, the Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) - Yahoo ( NASDAQ: YHOO) saga is far from over with reports now that Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo's search business.