Before the bell: Stocks head for lower open, again

Well, with this latest deal, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has all but confirmed what the next iPhone will be. Japanese mobile-phone operator Softbank Corp. said Wednesday that it reached an agreement with Apple to sell its iPhones by the end of the year. Japan has 103 million sophisticated mobile users, already paying up for high-tech phones. So far, speculation was that Apple will close a deal with NTT DoCoMo, but Softbanks it is. The phone will likely support 3G networks.

Merrill Lynch cut its price target to $27 from $28 for Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), saying Countrywide Financial's cumulative losses are likely to rise to between $10 billion and $12 billion, causing writedowns for its buyer and being a big EPS drag. It kept its Underperform rating for the stock.

While BofA paid $4 billion for Countrywide, Wachovia (NYSE: WB) paid $25 billion for Golden West Financial, which turned out to be a disastrous acquisition.

In deal news, Swiss drugmaker Novartis (NYSE: NVS) on Wednesday said it would pay as much as $400 million for Protez Pharmaceuticals, a closely held U.S. maker of antibiotics to fight hospital-acquired infections, the "superbug." It has also outlined its pipeline of vaccines under development. Cowen & Co. upgraded Novartis from Neutral to Outperform.

Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO) on Tuesday set its annual shareholder meeting on for August 1. This will be an interesting one to say the least as management, directors and shareholder brace for a showdown with billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn, who is mounting a proxy fight for control of Yahoo and may seek to remove Jerry Yang as Yahoo CEO.

General Motors (NYSE: GM) said Tuesday its sales fell 28% in May compared to a year earlier, with a 37% decline in truck and SUV sales and a 14% drop in car sales. Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F)'s sales fell 16% for the month, while Chrysler LLC's sales were down 25% and Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM)'s sales slipped 4%. Overall sales were down 11% compared to last May, according to Autodata Corp.