Before the bell 4-18-07: YHOO, MOT, INTC, RIMM, CAT, IBM ...

Main market news here.

Yahoo! shares are down 8.4% in pre-market trading after the company reported disappointing results after the close yesterday, posting an 11% profit decline in 1Q and missing analyst estimates. Yahoo! earned $142.4 million, or 10 cents per share, a penny below analysts' earnings estimate. Revenue for the period rose 7% to $1.67, or $1.18 billion after subtracting advertising commissions - lower than estimates expectations of $1.21 billion.
Jefferies & Co. lowered its fiscal 2007 net earnings for Yahoo! but kept its Buy rating on the stock.

Motorola posted a quarterly loss and lower revenue due to weak handset pricing and a limited portfolio of advanced phones. Motorola expects a flat 2Q.

Intel shares are up 2.5% in pre-market trading after the reported earnings after the close yesterday, posting a 19% profit growth and raising margin forecast for the year. Intel reported EPS of 27 cents per share vs. 22 cents expected by analysts. JPMorgan upgraded Intel to Overweight from Neutral, citing market share growth, lower costs and refusal to cut prices. Meanwhile, Merrill Lynch widened its second-quarter loss estimate for smaller rival AMD.

IBM shares are down 2.2% in pre-market after it met estimates when reporting yesterday earning $1.21 per share. Goldman Sachs downgraded IBM to Neutral from Buy, citing a slowdown in U.S. tech spending. Credit Suisse also downgraded the stock from Overweight to Neutral.

Research In Motion, which had only reported disappointing earnings last week, has problems with its BlackBerry service as customers experienced disruptions in North America and other parts of the world. RIMM shares are down 2.1% in pre-market.

Wachovia upgraded Caterpillar to Outperform from Market Perform, citing residential construction stabilization, which would CAT's re-accelerate earnings growth in early 2008.

eBay is expected to post earnings of 30 cents a share for the first quarter when it reports after the close today.
In Yahoo!'s conference call yesterday, Yahoo! said it is introducing a new payment feature in cooperation with eBay and eBay's PayPal online payment system. Starting April 17, Yahoo's sponsored search results will feature a blue shopping cart icon linking to merchants that accept PayPal Express Checkout.

Google announced on its blog it will soon be launching Google Presentations to add to the other online office features it offers Google Docs & Spreadsheets. Google has acquired Tonic Systems to help with the technology for presentation creation and document conversion.

Johnson & Johnson is still a long-term buy, said Deutsche Bank analyst Tao Levy.

Starbucks and its European joint venture partner, Marinopoulos Holding SARL, opened today the first Starbucks store in Bucharest, Romania.

Sirius CEO, Mel Karmazin, tried to convince a Senate committee that a merger with XM Satellite will not hurt competition in the audio entertainment market and will benefit consumers.