Before the bell: Stock futures lower -- second day of declines ahead?

Some analyst calls this morning:

• Caris & Company initiated coverage on Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) with an Average rating and a $96 target price. It also initiated coverage on Nokia (NYSE: NOK) with an Above Average rating.
• Stanford Research initiated coverage on Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) with a Buy and on Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) with a Hold.
• Bear Stearns upgraded Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN) from Peer Perform to Outperform and downgraded Saks (NYSE: SKS) from Peer Perform to Underperform.
• Jefferies & Co downgraded Adobe Systems (NASDAQ: ADBE) from Buy to Underperform, lowering that target price from $50 to $30.
• Banc of America downgraded Polo Ralph Lauren (NYSE: RL) from Buy to Neutral. It also downgraded Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB) for Outperform to Sector Perform.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) agreed to buy Audible Inc. (NASDQ: ADBL), the provider of digital spoken word audio content, for $11.50 a share, a 23% premium to its Wednesday's closing price.

Macworld has quite the review of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s new MacBook Air. To summarize, it give it 3.5 out of 5, saying that the pros are: Weighs three pounds; bright LED-backlit 13.3-inch screen; full-size keyboard. The cons are: Slow processor; slow and small hard drive; limited configuration options; unswappable battery.

A strategic alliance of Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) and Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT)'s Bell Helicopter operation has won a Navy contract worth up to $32 million to handle weather radar upgrades on the V-22 Osprey.

MarketingWeek claims that there is speculation that Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) may launch a mobile phone in partnership with computer giant Dell (NASDAQ: DELL).

Burger King Holdings Inc. (NYSE: BKC) said Thursday its second-quarter profit jumped 29% to $49 million, or 36 cents per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected earnings of 32 cents per share. Revenue rose 10% to $613 million. Analysts predicted revenue of $597.1 million.