Before the bell: Futures higher ahead of data; (F, TTM, SIRI, XMSR)3Com (NYSE: COMS) shares were up 7% in after-hours trading Monday as the network-equipment maker, whose $2.2 billion acquisition by Bain Capital LLC was said last week to be pulled off due to the government's security concerns, reported third- quarter sales of $336.4 million and 8 cents earnings per share (excluding one-time items), beating estimates.
Valero Energy (NYSE: VLO) shares are down over 3% in premarket trading after the refinery operator forecast significantly lower throughput margins on gasoline and other petroleum products and forecast first-quarter earnings of $0.10 to $0.35 per share below analyst estimates.
Activist investor Carl Icahn rejected an offer from Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) that would have given him two board seats instead of the four Icahn had launched a proxy battle to get. Icahn, who holds 6.3% of the shares in the telecommunications-equipment maker, sued the company for access to crucial board documents. Icahn has been hpushing Motorola to divest the unprofitable handset division for months. While Icahn has been quite vocal with his criticism, Motorola's board and management haven't commented much.
Some notable analyst calls:
- Citigroup downgraded The Gap, Inc. (NYSE: GPS) from Buy to Hold, with a target of $23. The stock is down 1.6% in premarket trading.
- Oppenheimer downgraded Tiffany & Co. (NYSE: TIF) from Outperform to Perform. The stock is down nearly 2% in premarket trading after closing up 10.5% on Monday following better-than-expected earnings.
- Sandler O'Neil downgraded Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC) from Hold to Sell.
- Citigroup upgraded Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) from Hold to Buy and upped the target price from $31 to $34. YHOO shares are up 2.9% in premarket trading.
Closing Bell: Economic Catapult for Thanksgiving & Black Friday (WMT, TGT, GRMN, GOOG, MSFT)
Deere up on Q4 earnings performance
Reid Hoffman: LinkedIn will go public (at some point)
