U.S. equities are poised to continue Monday's positive price action, with futures pointed modestly higher this morning. A round of domestic economic data will give traders something to chew on throughout the session; however, most of the day's chatter should revolve around the Federal Reserve, with the central bank slated to kick-off its two-day meeting later today.

In company news, here are some stocks to watch today:

• Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S) is suing DISH Network Corp (NASDAQ:DISH) and Clearwire Corporation (NASDAQ:CLWR) in an attempt to halt their impending merger. Sprint, which owns a majority stake in Clearwire, claims DISH's bid is against corporate law in Delaware, where Clearwire is incorporated, and that the takeover cannot be completed without approval from at least three-quarters of Clearwire's voting security holders. Just last week, CLWR's board endorsed DISH's takeover bid over a rival offer from S. (MarketWatch)


• Over the past six months, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) claims it has received 12,000 to 13,000 data requests from various U.S. law enforcement agencies. According to a company statement posted on YHOO's recent acquisition, Tumblr, the majority of the inquiries pertained to domestic crimes, such as fraud and homicide -- although some fell under the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as well. (Reuters)


• BlueRun Ventures, which owned a 15% stake in Waze Inc. as the company's largest investor, produced a 19-fold return on its $8.7 million investment, thanks to Google Inc's (NASDAQ:GOOG) $1.1 billion acquisition of the social mapping application. BlueRun's last investment to top the $1 billion mark? PayPal, Inc., which eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) bought out in 2002. (Bloomberg)


• Daniel Loeb's Third Point LLC has upped its stake in Sony Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:SNE) by 5 million shares, according to a letter sent from Loeb to Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai. The hedge-fund investor now owns a total of 70 million shares, which is valued at approximately $1.4 billion and amounts to 6.9% of the Japanese company. The letter also urged Hirai to sell of 15% to 20% of its entertainment arm to improve SNE's share price. (The Wall Street Journal - subscription required)


• Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW) recently gave startup glass manufacturer View, Inc. a large endorsement to continue creating its "dynamic glass," which can adjust its tint to the surrounding brightness automatically or wirelessly through an app. View claims the glass, which is being used for entire walls of buildings, can reduce annual energy consumption by 20% and HVAC peak load by 25%. (AllThingsD)


• Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk wants to bypass franchised automobile dealers, in an effort to sell his $70,000 electric luxury vehicles directly to customers. States such as Texas, Virginia and North Carolina, are working to prevent Musk from doing so, stating that his actions violate state franchise laws. (Yahoo! Finance)


• One Million Moms is boycotting Kraft Foods Group Inc's (NASDAQ:KRFT) "Let's Get Zesty" campaign, claiming its advertisement for Zesty Italian salad dressing is "disgusting" and obscene. The ad, which launched in early April, features a naked model, Anderson Davis, lying on a picnic blanket that barely covers his private parts. (Adweek)

Analysts are weighing in today on tech giant International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM), grocery store chain The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR), and home beverage maker Sodastream International Ltd (NASDAQ:SODA). Here's a quick roundup of today's bullish brokerage notes.

• Up a modest 6% year-to-date to hover at $203.04, IBM saw its price target lifted to $210 from $200 at RBC this morning. Meanwhile, data from the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) shows a 10-day put/call volume ratio of 1.24 for International Business Machines Corp., confirming puts bought to open have outpaced calls during the past two weeks. This ratio registers in the 77th percentile of its annual range, conveying speculators have been picking up puts over calls at an accelerated clip lately.
  
  
• With quarterly earnings quickly approaching, KR received a price-target hike to $33 from $26 at Cantor Fitzgerald today. The stock has gained more than 54% on a year-over-year basis to trade at $35.18, yet sentiment in the short-term options pits is bearishly biased. Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) for The Kroger Co. checks in at 1.08, with puts outnumbering calls among options with a shelf-life of three months or less. This ratio ranks higher than 75% of similar readings taken within the past year, meaning near-term traders are more put-heavy than usual toward the security right now.
  
  
• SODA -- which has more than doubled in value during the past year and is priced at $71.02 -- scored a price-target boost to $85 from $68 at Oppenheimer ahead of the opening bell. The stock has also bested the broader S&P 500 Index (SPX) by north of 41 percentage points over the last three months, yet bearish speculation remains alive and well on Sodastream International Ltd. In fact, short interest accounts for nearly 34% of the equity's available float. It would take almost seven sessions to buy back these shorted shares, at the equity's average daily trading volume.

The recent preponderance of triple-digit moves in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) has gotten some well-deserved publicity. And it's, of course, impacted volatility readings; 10-day realized volatility (RV) in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) has spiked up to 17, the high-water mark since late April. What's more, that April reading was really thanks to a big dip in one session (April 15). This one is more of a consistent uptick in the daily moves.

What's gotten less publicity is that the market really hasn't made a meaningful move net-net. Here's SPY over the past month of trading (with 10-day RV on the bottom of the graph).

SPY hit the highs on May 22, then took a tumble in the next session. Since then we've had a lot of noise and angst and Hindenburg Omens and Nikkei crashes and yen explosions and talk of Dreaded Tapering and whatnot. And yet, SPY is essentially unchanged since May 23. That's hard to believe; it feels like the market has gotten much uglier than these numbers suggest.

The CBOE Market Volatility Index (VIX) certainly reflects that perception of unrest. Here's how it looks over the last month.

VIX closed at 14.07 on May 23, so even after yesterday's market pop, the "fear gauge" has rallied about 20% over a four-week period, where SPY hasn't budged.

Even "Worst ETF Ever" iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) has acted well.

It's up about 10% since May 23, which is perfectly in line with VIX rallying 20%. Basically, the VIX term structure has almost the exact same slope it had on May 23, just a higher basis (chart courtesy of VIX Central).

Now, I always preach that volatility indicators measure... volatility. They're sometimes confused with inverse stock ETFs. So, in a sense this is all appropriate action. Even though the market itself hasn't actually moved, realized volatility has demonstrably ticked up.

But by the same token, that across-the-board spike in volatility unaccompanied by an actual net market move is a bit bullish on a contrary basis. We have literally the worst time of year to own options about to happen. The stretch from June expiration to the return from the July 4 break is notoriously slow year after year. We have Big Ben on tap this week, and that could obviously cause some gyrations. But it's very likely that's the last piece of "good" volatility news for a few weeks.

Disclaimer: The views represented on this blog are those of the individual author only, and do not necessarily represent the views of Schaeffer's Investment Research.

U.S. stocks are significantly higher this afternoon, thanks to upbeat economic data and widespread optimism ahead of Wednesday's Fed meeting. Among the equities in focus include commodity concern Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM), credit card issuer Visa Inc (NYSE:V), and TV titan Time Warner Cable Inc (NYSE:TWC), which have all attracted the attention of analysts.

• XOM is up 0.6% at $91.14, after Jefferies lifted its price target to $90 from $85. Most analysts are skeptical when it comes to Exxon Mobil, which boasts just five "buy" or better ratings, compared to 10 "hold" or worse suggestions. In the same vein, option buyers have picked up more than three XOM puts for every call during the past two weeks, as evidenced by the stock's 10-day put/call volume ratio of 3.25 on the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX). Compared to similar readings of the past year, this ratio stands just 4 percentage points from a new high, pointing to a healthier-than-usual appetite for bearish bets on the blue chip.
  
  
• Meanwhile, V has added 0.8% to wink at $182.43, after Raymond James hiked its price target to $210 from $190. From a broader sentiment standpoint, Visa Inc. is no stranger to optimism, with 20 out of 30 analysts offering up "buy" or better opinions. Likewise, the equity's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.94 sits just 8 percentage points from a 12-month nadir, suggesting near-term options traders are more call-heavy than usual right now. On the charts, V has advanced more than 20% in 2013, and is trading within a hair's breadth of its all-time high of $184.90.
  
  
• Finally, TWC is bucking the broad-market trend higher, surrendering 2.3% to linger near the $101.55 level. Weighing on the equity is a downgrade to "market perform" from "outperform" at Raymond James, and traders are likely taking profits after Friday's M&A-related rally to four-year highs. Specifically, Liberty Media Corp. (NASDAQ:LMCA) CEO Greg Maffei reportedly met with Time Warner Cable head Glenn Britt to discuss a potential buyout by Charter Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:CHTR), of which LMCA owns a 27% stake. Taking the collective temperature in the options pits reveals a good deal of optimism, as the stock's 10-day ISE/CBOE/PHLX call/put volume ratio of 15.51 rests just 6 percentage points from an annual acme.

With the Federal Open Market Committee's (FOMC) updated policy statement due mid-week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEXDJX:.DJI) is up 157 points, or 1%, to 15,226.96, boosted by hopes that the Fed will reiterate its commitment to providing economic stimulus measures. Meanwhile, the Empire State manufacturing index arrived at 7.84 this month -- up from May's reading of negative 1.43, and easily besting consensus estimates. Elsewhere, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) said its housing market index rose to a higher-than-expected reading of 52 in June, marking its loftiest level since March 2006.

Here are a few noteworthy stats at midday:

1. The equity put/call volume ratio across all 11 options exchanges stands at 0.84, with 1.5 million calls traded so far today, compared to 1.3 million puts.
   
   
2. Among the equities with heavy call activity is China-based Renren Inc (NYSE:RENN), which has added about 1% since the opening bell, despite a lack of notable news drivers. Currently, calls account for 97.9% of the social networking platform's intraday option volume. At last check, RENN was trading at $3.24.
   
   
3. The Nasdaq shows an advance/decline ratio of 2.42, with the number of upward movers more than doubling the decliners.
   
   
4. Among the Nasdaq's major advancers is Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU), which has gained about 4.4% -- and tagged a new multi-year high of $13.50 -- in intraday action, after scoring price-target hikes at Credit Suisse (to $20 from $14) and Jefferies (to $18 from $15) over the weekend. MU is presently trading at $13.32.
   
   
5. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) is 0.2 point, or 1.4%, lower, to perch at 16.91.
   
   
6. The put/call volume ratio on the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (NYSEARCA:VXX) -- which is currently docked at 20.35 -- sits at 0.69, with calls outstripping puts.

View a real-time chart of the Dow Jones Industrial Average 2 Minute (INDEXDJX:.DJI).