Before the bell: M&A talks give Wall Street a lift

Notable calls:

• UBS upgraded Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB) to Buy from Neutral. The broker said it expects a 9% growth in earnings per share for the next few years due to productivity improvements.
• Lowe's Companies, Inc. (NYSE: LOW) was upgraded by two firms following the strong earnings reported Monday. JPMorgan upgraded LOW from Neutral to Overweight and UBS from Sell to Buy. LOW is up over 2% in premarket trading.

BHP Billiton Ltd. (NYSE: BHP) reported earnings today, saying income rose 28% in the last year to $13.42 billion because of strong commodity prices and high demand. Excluding items, profit rose 35% to $13.68 billion, beating analyst expectations of $13.49 billion. Revenue for the year climbed 21% to $47.47 billion. BHP said it produced record amounts of several resources and it doesn't expect much fallout from current turbulent financial markets. It expects significant volume growth in oil, copper iron ore and nickel for 2008. BHP shares rose in London and are traded up 3.7% in premarket action (7:34 a.m.).

An article on Fortune looks at Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) computer business, finding its success and contribution to Apple's profit ironic since the company dropped the word from its name. Nonetheless, this article details the growth and success of the mac, calling it a "good long-term investment story." And that's without even taking iPod and iPhone into account.

While General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) biggest China manufacturing joint venture wants to offer interest-free car loans [subscription required] in its attempt to encourage people to borrow to buy cars, Toyota Motor Co. (NYSE: TM) says it aims to sell over 10.4 million vehicles worldwide in 2009.

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) and its problems with executing [subscription required] its recent business model is nothing new to anyone who has been searching for a new laptop recently. Delays in shipments are being blamed on others, but, really, the consumer doesn't really care.

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