*Scanning all single-stocks subject to 2500 contracts minimum call or put volume

Stocks are indicated modestly higher ahead of housing data and earnings news Monday. Less than thirty minutes before the opening bell on Wall Street, stock index futures indicate that the Dow Jones Industrial Average might add 30 or 40 points in early action.

The economic calendar is light this week, but several housing reports. The NAHB Homebuilder Sentiment Index for July is due at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time. Housing Starts numbers are slated for Tuesday and Existing Homes sales on Thursday.

Much of the focus this week will be on earnings. Hundreds of companies are due to release results, including IBM and Texas Instruments (TXN) after the closing bell today.

Halliburton (HAL) is up 3.8 percent after reporting a quarterly profit of 52-cents per shares, which easily beat Street estimates of 37 cents per share. Delta Airlines (DAL) and Hasbro (HAS) are also out with better-than-expected numbers.

Motorola (MOT) rallied more than 5 percent after Nokia Sieman said it would buy the company’s wireless infrastructure assets for $1.2 billion. Boeing (BA) will help the Dow in early trading after Dubai Airlines orders 30 Boeing 777-300ER commercial airplanes. Quicksilver Resources (KWK) is up nearly 6 percent on unconfirmed talk Reliance Industries is in talks to buy the company.

Commodity-related names might see early weakness after crude oil slipped 17 cents to $75.84 a barrel and gold lost $4.40 to $1138.8 an ounce.

Bonds are lower in sluggish trade. The benchmark ten-year Treasury lost 8/32nd and now yields 2.95 percent. Meanwhile, the dollar is mixed, gaining .53 to 87.09 against the yen. The euro is up .0053 to 1.2945 against the buck.

*Scanning all single-stocks subject to 2500 contracts minimum call or put volume

Nokia (NOK) shares are down 93 cents to $8.89 after the Finnish phone maker pre-announced disappointing second quarter earnings results. NOK is under pressure and 31.1K July 9 puts trade. 90 percent traded on the bid and the action includes a block of more than 10K at 50 cents each. The trade likely liquidates positions opened Friday (see 6/11 color), when NOK July 9 puts were being bought-to-open at between 31 and 34 cents. 40.4K traded total.

Note that the June 11 color on Nokia is a great example of very heavy accumulation in a name on no news. The bias was clearly bearish, as these investors were buying-to-open new positions. This is the type of activity when there is a leak or some savvy investors recognize that a company might have news that will move the stock. That’s one reason we track the order flow. Here is another interesting article about the value of following options activity.

Qualcomm shares are off 50c to $35.10 and notable volume in the October $33 puts in which a 4,144 lot and now total of 10,050 contracts have traded. Looks like buying and potentially closes a position opened on 5/10 when shares gap higher that day to around $37.40 and puts were around $1.80 a contract. Lowered guidance from NOK could be weighing on shares.

Stocks are indicated lower following big gains Tuesday and after the latest housing starts data fell short of expectations. Thirty minutes before the opening bell on Wall Street, stock index futures indicate that the Dow Jones Industrial Average might give back 50 or 60 of yesterday’s 214-point gain.

Stock index futures slipped after data showed Housing Starts falling to an annual rate of 593,000 in May, down from 659,000 the month before and below economist expectations of 655,000. Building permits, a better gauge of future activity, fell to 574,000 and also below economist estimates of 631,000.

Meanwhile, the latest Consumer Price Index showed a drop of .3 percent in May, and less than the .5 percent drop that economists had expected. Excluding food and energy, the core CPI rose .2 percent and twice as fast as expected.

Industrial production numbers are due out at 9:15. Economists expected an increase of .8 percent for May and a capacity utilization rate of 74.4 percent.

The overall data is weighing on stock index futures, but bonds are bouncing back. The benchmark ten-year Treasury is up 14/32nd and now yields 3.25 percent.

Action across the Atlantic has been lackluster thus far. France’s CAC 40 lost .5 percent, Germany’s DAX slipped .4 percent, and UK’s FTSE is flat. The euro gave back .0043 to 1.2273 against the buck.

Crude oil slipped 63 cents to $76.31 a barrel ahead of weekly inventory data. Gold gained $3.2 to $1237.60 an ounce.

Among the stocks to watch, FedEx (FDX) is down 2.5 percent after posing a quarterly profit of $1.33 per share, which was a penny better than Street estimates, but then offered lower guidance for the full year. BP shares lost 4 percent after President Obama blasted the oil giant in a televised address Tuesday evening. Nokia (NOK) fell 10 percent after lowering its earnings guidance. International Game Technology (IGT) is under pressure after Goldman cut the stock to Sell. Kroger (KR) and Smithfield Foods (SFD) might see pre-earnings action ahead of earnings, Thursday before market.

Nokia (NOK) shares are up 6 cents to $9.53 and sentiment seems bearish, with customers buying to open 18,000 Nokia puts on the ISE so far today. 52K puts traded across all exchanges, which is 6X normal and compares to 6,695 calls. Players are dialing in to the July 9 puts, which have traded 40.3K (86 percent Ask). July 10, Oct 9 and Jun 10 puts are active as well. Implied volatility is up about 4 percent to 47, as it appears that some investors are bracing for a possible drop in shares of the Finnish phone maker in the weeks ahead. No news to explain the action.