Earnings highlights: Yahoo!, McDonald's, American Express, Pfizer, Delta and others

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) earnings tumbled in Q4 but came in just short of expectations.
Best Buy Inc. (NYSE: BBY) earnings prospects and cash flow led to an analyst's upgrade.
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE: BMY) topped analysts Q4 expectations, sending shares higher.
Colgate-Palmolive Co. (NYSE: CL) posted a better-than-expected Q4 profit despite the weak economy.
Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL) reported a big quarterly loss due to merger costs and bad fuel hedges.
Eaton Corp. (NYSE: ETN) Q4 earnings fell on lower exchange rates and charges related to an acquisition.
E*Trade Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: ETFC) narrowed its Q4 net loss but fell short of expectations.

Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) Q4 numbers surged, beating analysts' projections.
Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) earnings are expected to be affected by restructuring costs.
McDonald's Corp. (NYSE: MCD) posted better-than-expected earnings and said it would open new stores.
Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) said Q4 earnings sank on charges and also announced an acquisition of a rival.
Siemens (NYSE: SI) posted a deep drop in earnings, but reaffirmed its earnings outlook for the year.
Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) dismal results were accompanied by the announcement of job cuts.
Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO) posted a big loss after charges due to impairments and writedowns.
VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW) posted strong Q4 and 2008 numbers but warned of weakness in 2009.
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) topped Q4 earnings estimates and its revenue slipped slightly.

Also, Jim Cramer wonders at analysts' misguided takes on Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) and DuPont (NYSE: DD). Douglas McIntyre advises to expect dividend cuts as firms report earnings for the recent and current quarters, and he points out that short sellers are betting that lower sales will hurt earnings of Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL). Sam Collins suggests that "unemployment is a trailing indicator telling us that within three to six months earnings will probably turn higher."