Before the bell 07-31-06: GOOG, MSFT, YHOO, EBAY

It looks like Apple Computer will be one of the major bright spots as most stocks open lower this morning. Based on pre-market trading, most of the major indexes look set to fall at the open. Declines are being attributed to profit-taking after last Friday's gains as well as more violence in the Middle East, including horrific casualties in Qana, Lebanon. But Apple is benefiting nicely from an upgrade by Banc of America Securities.

Crude traded on NYMEX is at $73.50. The only economic report due is Chicago Purchasing Managers' Index at 10 a.m.

Earnings due today include United Airlines' UAL Corp. (UAUA), HSBC Holdings (HBC), Affymetrix (AFFX) and Humana (HUM).

Here's a look at some key Blogging Stocks:

Google (GOOG) is down 72 cents in pre-market trading to $387.40 as of 8:24 a.m. TheStreet.com looks at press coverage of Google's second quarter report.

Microsoft (MSFT) is down 3 cents to $24.22 as of 8:28 a.m. A ZDNet blogger compares Microsoft's plans to dominate the Web to Google's. MSFT submits more documents in hopes of dodging European Commission fine.

Yahoo! (YHOO) is up 14 cents to $27.33 as of 8:11 a.m. Fickr's founder, Catarina Fake, presents at Blogher (a conference for women bloggers).

eBay (EBAY) is down 16 cents to $24.27 at 8:33 a.m. On Friday it registered to sell 15 million shares originally issued as part of the Skype purchase.