In addition to a bevy of earnings reports, the market is also digesting some economic data from the housing and retail sectors. First up, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) reported that U.S. home values fell 0.3% in May, marking the twelfth drop during the past 13 months. On a year-over-year basis, home prices are down 4.8% -- the steepest plunge in the history of the index. Homes in the Pacific states saw their prices gain 0.3%, the first increase in a year for the battered region. OFHEO's report doesn't include jumbo or subprime loans.

Elsewhere, the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and UBS Securities said that chain-store sales rose 2.5% last week on a year-over-year basis, and edged 0.1% higher from the previous week. The annual increase marks the biggest such jump since late December, when the holiday season boosted results. Michael Niemira, chief economist at ICSC, attributed the surge in sales to "a slight 2-week pull-back in gasoline prices, some improvement in upper-income consumer confidence, a heat-wave in the Midwest through the Northeast, and summer clearance sales."