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Before the bell: ETFC, DELL, LEN, C, XOM, RIMM, AAPL ...

Before the bell: Stock futures somewhat higher

Bank of America downgraded E-Trade Financial (NASDAQ: ETFC) to Sell from Hold, saying it no longer believes the value of its retail brokerage business can offset negative value at the bank. ETFC shares are down over 18% in premarket trading. [Update: as of 8:52 a.m., ETFC was down over 12%.]

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) signed an advertising agreement woth $1.5 billion annually for three years with British firm WPP Group Plc (NASDAQ: WPPGY) rather than with rival Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. (NYSE: IPG).

Lennar (NYSE: LEN) and Morgan Stanley Real Estate, a unit of Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) formed a land investment venture to buy, develop, manage and sell residential real estate. Lennar sold the venture properties with a net book value of $1.3 billion for $525 million. Lennar will have 20% ownership and 50% voting rights in the venture.


Shares of Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) are trading 1.2% higher in premarket action after the company said late Friday it has reduced the assets of structured investment vehicles (SIVs) it sponsors from $83 billion at the end of September to $66 billion as of Nov. 30.

An international consortium led by Eni (NYSE: E) and that includes Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) and Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS.A) have agreed to transfer part of their stakes in the Kashagan oil field to Kazakhstan's state-run KazMunaiGaz to end a long-running dispute.

According to a Net Applications survey, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s shares of the operating system market grew 3.34% in November to hit a record 6.81%. Naturally Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) holds the commanding lead with a 92.42% share.

Morgan Keegan downgraded Research in Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) from Outperform to Market Perform.

Tiffany & Co. (NYSE: TIF) and The Swatch Group reached an alliance to make and distribute Tiffany-brand watches.

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Last updated: December 02, 2008: 07:16 PM

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