Market Overview:

Stock futures were pointing towards a higher open at 7:30 a.m. The biggest recent positive  was strong results posted after the close last night from Hewlett-Packard (HPQ). The computer and peripheral maker earned $1.6 billion, or 54 cents a share in the quarter (excluding some expenses), up from $1.1 billion, or 37 cents, a year ago. Chip maker Applied Materials (AMAT) also posted strong results, but its shares were trading down early this morning as investors worried over its sales forecast.

The release of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for April is due out at 8:30 a.m. and will likely set the tone for the rest of the trading day. Economists expect the core reading (which excludes energy and food), to be up 0.2% and the overall index to be up 0.5%. If either number is less than that, it could be good news for the market, which is concerned about inflation pressures. The core Producer Price Index, reported Tuesday, was lower than expected.

Commodities were making up some lost ground this morning as oil climbed just above $70 and gold returned to $700 an ounce. Data on oil inventory levels is due out at 10:30 a.m. this morning.

Here's a look at some key Blogging Stocks this morning:

Google (GOOG) is up $3.69 to $374.99 as of 7:22 a.m.

Google isn't thrilling the audience today, what with a new launch from Google Labs, Google Notebook, that's said to be highly derivative and unoriginal. Some people, though, like it: guess we'll see what the market thinks soon.

Microsoft (MSFT) is up 6 cents to $23.07 in pre-market trading as of 7:25 a.m. Could Microsoft price the Xbox higher? The Curmudgeon Gamer has a great chart of absolute and relative game console prices since 1976. If costs are so high, maybe prices should go up, too? Also, Microsoft will release new search tools for corporate users today.

Yahoo! (YHOO) was down 2 cents to $30.95 in after-hours trading last night. We're all talking about the new Yahoo! home page, and the Yahoo! User Interface Blog talks open source (seems like everyone but Microsoft's into that). Yahoo! also redesigned Flickr, although Sarah Gilbert isn't thrilled until the bugs are out.

eBay (EBAY) was up 16 cents to $30.44 in after-hours trading last night. The big question on everyone's lips following the free SkypeOut announcement: what will this do to the U.S. telecom market? More specifically, Andy Kessler asks, did eBay do this purposely to skewer the Vonage IPO? Interesting question (although it smells a little of conspiracy theories).