Before the bell: Futures flatten after Merril; investor awaits Bernanke

Notable analyst calls this morning:

• Boeing (NYSE: BA) was upgraded by Bernstein from Market Perform to Outperform. However, Boeing said this morning, PrivatAir has ordered an additional 787-model airplane for $162 million.
• Adobe Systems (NASDAQ: ADBE) and McAfee (NYSE: MFE) were downgraded from Buy to Neutral by UBS.
• Harley Davidson (NYSE: HOG) was downgraded by Citigroup from Hold to Sell. Shares down over 4% in premarket trading.
  
• Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) was downgraded by Charter Equity from Buy to Market Perform.
• Oppenheimer downgraded JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) from Outperform to Perform.
• Piper Jaffray downgraded Jones Soda (NASDAQ: JSDA) from Buy to Neutral. Shares down over 3% in premarket trading.
  
• Friedman Billings, with its Outperform rating on Alcoa (NYSE: AA), lowered the aluminum maker's target price from $38 to $35.
• Altria (NYSE: MO)'s target price was upped to $88 from $79 by Credit Suisse, which rates the stock Outperform.

TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: AMTD) reported a 65% rise in its fiscal first-quarter net income as trading activity increased and asset-based revenue continued to grow. The company reported $240.8 million net income, or 40 cents per share, beating estimates by a penny. AMTD shares are up 4% in premarket trading.

FORTUNE's Apple 2.0 reports that Acer has overtaken Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) in both U.S. and worldwide computer sales, according to preliminary reports from Gartner and IDC. While Apple's domestic computer sales in the Christmas quarter were up about 30% YOY, triple the industry's average, Apple's share of the market actually fell during those three months, putting it in 4th place behind Dell (NASDAQ: DELL), HP (NYSE: HPQ) and Acer in U.S. personal computer sales.

Continental Airlines Inc. (NYSE: CAL) reported Thursday it had a pretax profit of $71 million for the fourth quarter on better-than-expected revenue of $3.52 billion. The airline carrier is delaying its report of its net income figures due to some accounting issues and should give a final report by mid-February.

Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO) has agreed a deal to provide targeted display advertising on T-Mobile's Internet service Web 'n' walk in Britain.

Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) "will experiment with a new pricing structure for high-speed Internet access later this year, charging customers based on how much data they download."

The ink didn't dry out on the BEA deal and Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) was at it again. The company announced yesterday it agreed to buy Captovation, a privately-held company that makes document imaging software.