Before the bell: Down ahead of payroll reportTime Magazine has named Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone, the invention of the year.
Notable calls this morning:
- Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) was upgraded at Deutsche Bank to Hold from Sell. Price target was upped from $15 to $17.
- eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) was downgraded from Outperform to Peer Perform at Bear Stearns due to expected margin declines in 2008. EBAY is down nearly 2.7% in premarket trading.
- Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) was downgraded at Deutsche Bank from Hold to Sell, due to growth lagging industry's. ERTS shares are up over 2.5% in premarket after reporting results Thursday and announcing a restructuring plan.
News Corp's (NYSE: NWS) MySpace and Bebo, two of the world's largest social networking sites, on Thursday joined the Google (NASDAQ: GOOG)-led alliance, OpenSocial, to challenge Facebook.
Were News Corp.'s 'Ice Age' sequel and GE's 'Public Enemies' disappointments? 
Before the bell: Futures decline as oil falls sharply; GM's bankruptcy plan approved
Entrepreneur's Journal: Key steps for telesales success
