Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Deals, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Apple Inc (AAPL), Time Warner (TWX), Market matters, American Express (AXP), Bank of America (BAC), Merck and Co (MRK), Genentech Inc (DNA), Hasbro Inc (HAS)

Stock futures were higher this morning after Bank of America joined recent financials and topped Wall Street estimates. Also pushing futures higher is a deal in the pharma sector with Roche bidding nearly $44 billion for the rest of Genentech. However, both Merck and Schering-Plough said they’ll postpone reporting their financial results after the close; Apple will also be reporting results then. Finally, oil prices came off a six-week low and are trading back above $130 a barrel due to escalating Middle East tensions. Higher oil prices could dampen the mood on the Street.

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC), the biggest U.S. consumer bank and home lender, said profit fell 41% to $3.41 billion, or 72 cents a share, much better than analysts estimates of 21 cents according to Bloomberg. The bank curtailed loan losses, adding $2.2 billion to loan loss reserves. The bank has completed the purchase of Countrywide Financial Corp. on July 1. With these results, BAC joins other big banks that have recently reported better-than-expected results. BAC shares are up 8.6% in premarket trading.

Roche Holding on Monday said it was offering $43.7 billion to take over the remaining 44.1% shares of Genentech Inc. (NYSE: DNA) for $89 per share, 8.8% above DNA’s closing price Friday. DNA shares are up nearly 18% in premarket trading to $96.50.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) said Monday morning it settled its fight for control of the board with billionaire investor Carl Icahn. The board will expand to 11 members to include Icahn and the remaining two seats will be filled by the board upon the recommendation of its nominating and governance committee. In addition, Icahn, who owns about 5% on Yahoo common shares, agreed to withdraw his nominees for consideration at the annual meeting and to support the board’s nominees. YHOO shares are declining 2% in premarket trading.

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Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Deals, Google (GOOG), Apple Inc (AAPL), Starbucks (SBUX), General Motors (GM), Motorola (MOT), Exxon Mobil (XOM), Market matters, Walt Disney (DIS), Aetna Inc (AET), Altria Group (MO), Kellogg Co (K), MasterCard Inc’A’ (MA), Economic data, Unilever ADR (UL)

U.S. stock futures were mixed Thursday morning ahead of the government preliminary report of U.S. second-quarter gross domestic product to be released at 8:30 a.m. EDT. Compare to the first quarter, where GDP grew at an annual rate of 1%, analysts are expecting an annual growth rate in the second quarter of 2.3% according to Briefing.com. Another wave of earnings will also wash Wall Street over this morning, while it’s still digesting Wednesday’s ones. The market will likely take a clearer direction once GDP is out.

[Update: GDP grew at a 1.9% pace in the second quarter came in well short of the 2.3% forecast. Futures are declining on economy and the XOM miss. Wall Street will likely open significantly lower.]

Reporting/reported this morning:

• Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) is expected to report second-quarter earnings before the open. If ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) and BP (NYSE: BP) results are any indication, XOM will likely post massive profits thanks to oil’s skyrocketing prices and even break the record it has set for largest profit by a U.S. company. Analyst on average expect Exxon Mobil to earn $2.52 a share on revenue of $144 billion, according to a survey by Thomson Financial.
• MasterCard Inc. (NYSE: MA) is expected to report earnings of $2.02 per share.
• Kellog (NYSE: K) is expected to post earnings of 81 cents per shares.

• Motorola (NYSE: MOT) shares are climbing 4.8% in premarket trading after it posted a small profit as revenue and phone sales beat estimates. Motorola reported a second-quarter profit of $4 million and broke even on a per share basis. Revenue fell to $8.1 billion.
• Aetna (NYSE: AET) shares are gaining 1% in premarket trading after the health insurer said its second-quarter profit rose 6.4% on membership growth and a hike in premium rates. The company posted 97 cents earnings per share on revenue of $7.83 billion (a rise of 15%). Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected profit of 93 cents per share on revenue of about $7.87 billion, on average.
• Altria (NYSE: MO) shares are trading 2.7% higher in premarket action after the it said its second-quarter profit fell 58% as it separated its international cigarette unit. Excluding one-time items, profit rose to 46 cents per share. Revenue has risen 4% to $5.05 billion from $4.86 billion. Thomson Financial says analysts expected a profit of 45 cents per share on revenue of $4.17 billion.
• Unilever (NYSE: UN, UL) shares are down nearly 9% in premarket trading after the consumer product company said profit declined by almost a fifth while sales dipped 1%.
• Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS.A) reported profit growth of 33%.
• Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE: DB) reported bigger-than-estimated 2.3 billion euros ($3.6 billion) of debt writedowns in the second quarter, saying it remains cautious on the rest of the year.

Reported Wednesday after the close:

• Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) shares are climbing 4.3% in premarket trading as it beat estimates.
• Visa (NYSE: V) shares are also climbing over 3.2% in premarket trading after it topped Street forecast. Visa seems to be counting on international transactions.
• First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR) are up nearly 8% in premarket trading after the solar energy company crushed estimated across the board.
• Disney (NYSE: DIS) shares, on the other hand, are down over 2% in premarket trading despite beating estimates. The media conglomerate said it detected slowing growth.

According to the Wall Street Journal General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) will cut 5,000 North American white-collar jobs by November 1 as part the plan announced earlier this month to save $10 billion through 2009.

A day after Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) acquired Omnisio to interact with YouTube, for the Wall Street Journal reported it “is working on plans to start a venture-capital arm, according to several people briefed on the discussions.”

Despite claims of Rogers, sole carrier of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone in Canada it is getting weekly shipments from Apple, sales of the iPhone in Canada are still outpacing supply.

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Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Deals, Google (GOOG), Apple Inc (AAPL), Starbucks (SBUX), General Motors (GM), Motorola (MOT), Exxon Mobil (XOM), Market matters, Walt Disney (DIS), Aetna Inc (AET), Altria Group (MO), Kellogg Co (K), MasterCard Inc’A’ (MA), Economic data, Unilever ADR (UL)

U.S. stock futures were mixed Thursday morning ahead of the government preliminary report of U.S. second-quarter gross domestic product to be released at 8:30 a.m. EDT. Compare to the first quarter, where GDP grew at an annual rate of 1%, analysts are expecting an annual growth rate in the second quarter of 2.3% according to Briefing.com. Another wave of earnings will also wash Wall Street over this morning, while it’s still digesting Wednesday’s ones. The market will likely take a clearer direction once GDP is out.

[Update: GDP grew at a 1.9% pace in the second quarter came in well short of the 2.3% forecast. Futures are declining on economy and the XOM miss. Wall Street will likely open significantly lower.]

Reporting/reported this morning:

• Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) is expected to report second-quarter earnings before the open. If ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) and BP (NYSE: BP) results are any indication, XOM will likely post massive profits thanks to oil’s skyrocketing prices and even break the record it has set for largest profit by a U.S. company. Analyst on average expect Exxon Mobil to earn $2.52 a share on revenue of $144 billion, according to a survey by Thomson Financial.
• MasterCard Inc. (NYSE: MA) is expected to report earnings of $2.02 per share.
• Kellog (NYSE: K) is expected to post earnings of 81 cents per shares.

• Motorola (NYSE: MOT) shares are climbing 4.8% in premarket trading after it posted a small profit as revenue and phone sales beat estimates. Motorola reported a second-quarter profit of $4 million and broke even on a per share basis. Revenue fell to $8.1 billion.
• Aetna (NYSE: AET) shares are gaining 1% in premarket trading after the health insurer said its second-quarter profit rose 6.4% on membership growth and a hike in premium rates. The company posted 97 cents earnings per share on revenue of $7.83 billion (a rise of 15%). Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected profit of 93 cents per share on revenue of about $7.87 billion, on average.
• Altria (NYSE: MO) shares are trading 2.7% higher in premarket action after the it said its second-quarter profit fell 58% as it separated its international cigarette unit. Excluding one-time items, profit rose to 46 cents per share. Revenue has risen 4% to $5.05 billion from $4.86 billion. Thomson Financial says analysts expected a profit of 45 cents per share on revenue of $4.17 billion.
• Unilever (NYSE: UN, UL) shares are down nearly 9% in premarket trading after the consumer product company said profit declined by almost a fifth while sales dipped 1%.
• Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS.A) reported profit growth of 33%.
• Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE: DB) reported bigger-than-estimated 2.3 billion euros ($3.6 billion) of debt writedowns in the second quarter, saying it remains cautious on the rest of the year.

Reported Wednesday after the close:

• Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) shares are climbing 4.3% in premarket trading as it beat estimates.
• Visa (NYSE: V) shares are also climbing over 3.2% in premarket trading after it topped Street forecast. Visa seems to be counting on international transactions.
• First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR) are up nearly 8% in premarket trading after the solar energy company crushed estimated across the board.
• Disney (NYSE: DIS) shares, on the other hand, are down over 2% in premarket trading despite beating estimates. The media conglomerate said it detected slowing growth.

According to the Wall Street Journal General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) will cut 5,000 North American white-collar jobs by November 1 as part the plan announced earlier this month to save $10 billion through 2009.

A day after Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) acquired Omnisio to interact with YouTube, for the Wall Street Journal reported it “is working on plans to start a venture-capital arm, according to several people briefed on the discussions.”

Despite claims of Rogers, sole carrier of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone in Canada it is getting weekly shipments from Apple, sales of the iPhone in Canada are still outpacing supply.

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Filed under: Google (GOOG), Presidential elections

The Oracle of Omaha is shining a light on the presidential campaign of Barack Obama.

According to media reports, Warren Buffett is participating with Obama in a meeting about the economy along with Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) Chairman Eric Schmidt, former Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Larry Summers and former Labor Secretary Bob Reich, according to CNBC. New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) co-chairman, and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker also will be at the meeting of the wisemen tomorrow. Buffett will be participating via telephone hook-up.

There is plenty to talk about given the current state of the economy and the housing market which the International Monetary Fund says shows no signs of recovery. Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, is clearly signaling not to expect much from the meeting.

“I expect some further fine-tuning of short-term policies based on what’s happened over the last several months,” Obama said in an interview with Bloomberg News.

What that means is not clear. It should surprise no one that Buffett is backing Obama. The investor has been critical of President Bush’s economic policies including the repeal of the estate tax which he said would be a “terrible mistake.” But that doesn’t mean he agrees with all of Obama’s policies either.

As CNBC notes, Buffett supported Hillary Clinton while she was running for president and disagrees with Obama’s call to tax the windfall profits of oil companies and his decision to forgo public financing of his campaign. I guess the Omaha investor considers Obama to be a significant improvement over Republican John McCain.

Interesting how the greatest investor in history who Republicans tout as a champion of capitalism is as big of a Democrat as Barbra Streisand.

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Filed under: Google (GOOG), Presidential elections

The Oracle of Omaha is shining a light on the presidential campaign of Barack Obama.

According to media reports, Warren Buffett is participating with Obama in a meeting about the economy along with Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) Chairman Eric Schmidt, former Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Larry Summers and former Labor Secretary Bob Reich, according to CNBC. New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) co-chairman, and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker also will be at the meeting of the wisemen tomorrow. Buffett will be participating via telephone hook-up.

There is plenty to talk about given the current state of the economy and the housing market which the International Monetary Fund says shows no signs of recovery. Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, is clearly signaling not to expect much from the meeting.

“I expect some further fine-tuning of short-term policies based on what’s happened over the last several months,” Obama said in an interview with Bloomberg News.

What that means is not clear. It should surprise no one that Buffett is backing Obama. The investor has been critical of President Bush’s economic policies including the repeal of the estate tax which he said would be a “terrible mistake.” But that doesn’t mean he agrees with all of Obama’s policies either.

As CNBC notes, Buffett supported Hillary Clinton while she was running for president and disagrees with Obama’s call to tax the windfall profits of oil companies and his decision to forgo public financing of his campaign. I guess the Omaha investor considers Obama to be a significant improvement over Republican John McCain.

Interesting how the greatest investor in history who Republicans tout as a champion of capitalism is as big of a Democrat as Barbra Streisand.

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Filed under: Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Apple Inc (AAPL), Cisco Systems (CSCO), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Time Warner (TWX), Intel (INTC), International Business Machines (IBM), Nokia Corp. (NOK), Sprint Nextel Corp (S), Money and Finance Today, Whole Foods Market (WFMI), Oracle Corp (ORCL), News Corp’B’ (NWS), QUALCOMM Inc (QCOM)

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