After covering Yahoo!'s Q2 results yesterday, I was left a little disappointed. True, current CEO and company co-founder Jerry Yang has only been in the top spot for a month or so and the April-June quarter results obviously did not reflect any of Yang's direct effort to turn the company around. Yang still aims to monetize more of the traffic Yahoo! receives as well as find new ways to break into non-traditional advertising areas to increase growth, much like competitor Google has done. Listening to Yahoo! President Sue Decker, I believe she has a firmer grip on the operational logistics than Yang, although Yang seems to be more of a spiritual leader for the company. I was left wondering if this new management combination will work.

Were Yahoo!'s (NASDAQ: YHOO) Q2 results a problem? Not necessarily, although that is the sentiment right now with the stock being hammered about 5% in premarket trading right now. The company matched analyst expectations of $0.11 EPS, but offered very little in guidance for future quarters and said that some of the revenue shift that was expected for the Q3 and Q4 period actually occurred in Q2. In other words, don't expect any stellar quarters this year at all from Yahoo!, even with its Project Panama "making great progress." Hmm.

When Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) releases its quarterly numbers tomorrow, it will blow past analyst expectations if recent history is any sign. This will, again, pressure Yahoo! management team to show that it can be as innovative and make as much cash (from any combination of areas) as its larger competitor, using internet search or anything else. In fact, Yahoo!'s position to see revenues from just as many areas as it can is increasingly important as it won't be taking search market share away from Google any time soon. The question is, can it do it?

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) today reported better-than-expected second quarter results thanks to huge gains in investment banking and private equity investments.

Profit was $4.23 billion, or $1.20 per share, on revenue of $18.9 billion. The No. 2 investment bank was expected to earn $1.09 and post revenue of $17.62 billion, according to analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial. Knott Capital's Peter Schofield told Bloomberg News that, "JPMorgan is growing with deals, trading and investment banking everywhere."

Indeed, net income from investment banking was $1.18 billion, up 415 compared with the year-ago period, according to the New York-based company. Record fees helped by the surging stock market helped the business. Not surprisingly, profit fell 10% in its retail banking amid declines in regional banking and auto finance.

Though Chief Executive Jamie Dimon remains optimistic, he sounded cautionary note in the earnings press release, which helped push down the shares in pre-market trading:

Although we remain at a relatively benign point of the credit cycle, we continue to focus on being prepared for a less favorable environment. Given the diversity of our business mix, improving operating margins across our businesses and the strength of our balance sheet, the firm is well-positioned for the future.

Amazon.com investors are not pleased. Not at all. The internet retailer had major strategy changes this quarter with the embittered breakup with longtime partner Toysrus.com, and that combined with other factors to send net income down 58% from the year-ago quarter. Quarterly net income was $22 million, five cents per diluted share, versus $50 million, or 12 cents per share, in 2005. Sales, however, were good and within Amazon's forecasted range at $2.14 billion, up 22%.

Investors didn't seem to care much that sales showed such a strong growth rate, or that Amazon.com had, indeed, warned of ill effects of the end of the Toysrus.com partnership. After falling 72 cents in intraday trading ahead of the earnings release, shares were down another $3.47, or 12.2% on the day, in after-hours trading a few minutes after the announcement.

Amazon.com's 52-week low is $30, only a few pennies less than where the stock stands in after-hours.

Google's earnings exceeded expectations for the second quarter, with $721.1 million on revenue of $2.455 billion. At first, the investors were exultant, and the stock recovered from its $11.88 fall on the day.

However, Sheldon Liber and I have been eagerly watching the stock progress in after-hours trading. The stock had almost reversed all its losses for the day a few minutes after the announcement, then dropped again by about 4:45 p.m. But by the time we published this post at 4:50, the losses had once again been mostly erased and the stock hovered around $394. We'll see how the call affects investors' feelings...

With great results on the earnings release, a few minutes ago, I was excited to hear the whole glowing report by Meg Whitman & team. I tuned in early.

Evidently, it's not a good idea to tune in early. I kept refreshing my page only to miss the first 14 minutes. So I'll be following up and re-capping when the webcast is archived later tonight. In the meantime...

5:14 p.m. -- CEO Meg Whitman is excitedly talking about PayPal when I tune in, and quickly goes on to Skype, talking about the free SkypeOut North America promotion, saying that U.S. and Canada downloads tripled and "revenue has accelerated past pre-campaign levels" despite the free nature of the campaign.

5:18 p.m. -- "Never stand still, adjust with lightning speed to whatever comes our way," is the strategy, says Meg. She also points out the many doubters along the way -- "why does eBay need a bank?" and "what is eBay doing with Skype?" -- but says that doubters have now been quashed. She's a really excellent speaker, eBay's speechwriter should get a bonus.

5:22 p.m. -- Now time for CFO Bob Swan. I think all CFO's should be named "Bob." He begins to rattle off the financial results. User growth continues to be strong, with 10 million new users in the quarter. Auction listings showed a year-over-year growth of 35%, and 106 million new listings in the stores, total. That's 3.1 million new users in the U.S., and U.S. listings grew 15% (guess most of that growth is coming outside the U.S.).

Ahead of the investor conference call starting in a few minutes, eBay announced second-quarter revenue of $1.411 billion and non-GAAP earnings per diluted share of $0.24. Wall Street will be entirely unsurprised, as this is exactly what analysts predicted.

Will it be enough to turn around today's (and, in fact, this year's) stock malaise? It seems as if investors are relieved; in after hours trading, the stock has recovered the day's losses and more, currently at $27.24 in after hours, up from a close of $25.93. Could this be the end of eBay's slide? Tune into the live coverage of the earnings conference call in a few minutes to learn more.