:Earlier this morning, retailer Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) reported its second quarter earnings numbers. The company showed a decline of 15% in earnings year over year, but were able to come in above analyst estimates.

The stock is trading up 0.7% so far in premarket trading as we get ready to cover the company's conference call starting at 9:00 AM EDT. Be sure to refresh your screen often as updates will coming every couple of minutes during the entirety of this mornings call.

8:50 am - We have about 10 more minutes to go before this mornings call gets under way.

8:55 am - We are still on the call and waiting for the conference to get started. They have us just listening to a little easy listening music right now, and I expect that the action to get started here in about 5 more minutes

9:01 am - We seem to be running just a little bit late this morning, but should be getting started any minute now

9:03 am - Frank Blake is going through his opening comments. The issues around subprime market and the housing slowdown in general has been putting pressure on the company's business, and will continue to apply pressure. Comp sales were -5.2%. Sales were down 22%

9:05 am - best comp transaction performance in a while. saw a rise of 1.1$ for # of customer transactions