As I sit in my neighborhood Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) outlet, the song playing through the coffeeshop speakers is Everybody Hurts by REM. How appropriate. This fiscal year, especially these past two quarters, hurt Starbucks. Fiscal fourth quarter 2008 profits were $5.4 million, or a penny per share, after restructuring costs associated with store closings; but only 10 cents a share before charges, three cents less than analysts expected and a very painful 11 cents a share less than the year-ago period.

Ouch.

On a somewhat healthier note, net revenues were up a bit, to $2.5 billion, a 3% increase from a year earlier. Not a growth story exactly, but at least not negative! There's something! And CEO Howard Schultz had all kinds of positive spin, touting Starbucks as "more resilient than many other premium brands" (see how he snuck that "premium" in there? Talk about setting a subconscious benchmark!) and pointing out that he is "encouraged by our ability to drive increased traffic at a relatively low cost, as we did on Election Day" with the free tall coffee promotion.

The U.S. economy expanded at an annual rate of 0.6% in Q4 2007, below the consensus estimate, as activity in construction and consumer spending declined, The U.S. Commerce Department announced Thursday, in a statement.

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected the economy to grow at a 0.7% annualized rate in Q4 2007. The economy grew at a 4.9% pace in Q3 2007, the Commerce Department said.

For 2007, the economy grew at its weakest pace in five years, with GDP increasing at an inflation-adjusted 2.2%. GDP increased 2.9% in 2006. In 2007 the nation's GDP totaled $13.84 trillion, not adjusted for inflation.

In Q4 2007, a stronger performance in trade offset sub-par performances in consumer spending, business investment, residential investment, and inventories.

U.S. economic growth slowed substantially in Q4 2007. Gross domestic product grew at a 0.6% rate as the housing sector continued to contract, the U.S. Commerce Department announced Wednesday, raising concerns that the U.S. economy will fall into a recession in 2008, if it hasn't entered one already in December 2007.

Further, the Q4 GDP statistic represents the nation's slowest growth since the economy started to recover from the 2002 recession and was also well below the 1.2% consensus estimate. The economy grew at a 4.9% rate in Q3 2007. For 2007, the U.S. economy grew 2.2%, the slowest growth since 2002. GDP increased 2.9% in 2006.

Real personal consumption expenditures increased 2.0% in Q4 2007, compared with a jump of 2.8% in Q3 2007. Durable goods increased 4.2% in the fourth quarter, compared with a rise of 4.5% in the third. Nondurable goods increased 1.9%, compared with an increase of 2.2% the previous quarter. Services expenditures increased 1.6%, compared with an increase of 2.8% in Q3 2007.

The release date of XM Satellite Radio Inc.'s (NASDAQ:XMSR) Q4 2006 earnings report is thus far unannounced, but could come as early as next week. The uncertainty about that date seems to reflect a larger uncertainty about XM and its only real rival, Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (NASDAQ:SIRI).

Share prices of both satellite radio broadcasters rose for a time in January as rumors swirled that XM and Sirius might merge, even though it would require changes to FCC rules to make the merger possible. Analysts' reactions to the possible merger were mixed, depending on whether they thought the merger was likely to pass muster, when it might happen, and what such a merger might do the value of the resulting stock:

Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE:KO) has been running a television ad recently that features a senior citizen who has somehow gone his whole life without ever tasting a Coke. Just one sip of Coke sends him off on a frantic quest to experience everything he's overlooked during his lifetime. But the most incredible part of that ad may be the notion that someone could have never heard of Coke, let alone not had one. Coke surely ranks right up there with such American icons as baseball and apple pie.

It's not only hard to imagine someone never trying a Coke, but also that there are any unconquered markets left for the world's largest soft-drink company, at least as far as its traditional beverage offerings. That's no doubt why, like Pepsico Inc. (NYSE:PEP) and its other rivals, Coke is focusing so much of its energy these days on alternative beverages: teas, juices, energy drinks, and coffee.

Analysts expected Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) to earn 26 cents a share for the fiscal first quarter ended December 31, 2006. Starbucks earned? 26 cents a share. Right on the money.

Not only did we see exactly-met earnings, we also saw a same-store sales growth of a comfortable 6% -- nothing like the 4% that had everyone running scared this fall. Other bullet points on the report included net revenues of $2.4 billion, net earnings of $205 million, an increase of 18% over the year-earlier quarter, and "record quarterly Starbucks Card activations of $287 million" up 30%.

Disappointment hidden on page 2: evidently the bottled Frappuccino coffee drinks and DoubleShot espresso drinks, and the Starbucks ice cream, aren't doing so well; although it had a very small impact on the bottom line it's an interesting sideline to track.

Starbucks investors seemed quite happy, though, sending the stock up sharply in afterhours trading. SBUX closed out the trading day at $34.94, up 38 cents or 1.10%, and was falling a bit before the results; then bounced back up to $35.72, up 2.23% from yesterday's close.

Also check out some other earnings reports that we're following, and let us know your thoughts on earnings expectations.

With some analysts souring on tech stocks, the question for investors and watchers of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) ahead of its Q4 report on January 25 is whether this telecom chameleon (formerly SBC, formerly Southwestern Bell and others, formerly AT&T) can repeat its strong Q3 results. That showing was based primarily on the strength of AT&T's wireless business. And it's still wireless that provides hope in some quarters, specifically AT&T's piece of the brouhaha over Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)'s iPhone. Cingular (soon to be known once more as AT&T Wireless) will be the exclusive service provider for iPhones, which is bound to bring in boatloads of new customers for AT&T.

Some wonder whether giants AT&T and Apple can really get along, however. And the other big AT&T news in these days leading to the Q4 report is its new Unity service, a bundling of mobile and land-line services that is widely seen as an effort to stem the tide of customers going over to the cable providers.

AT&T rates a "buy" recommendation, according the Thomson Financial, with estimated earnings per share at 0.59, compared to 0.63 actual for the previous quarter, and revenue of 21.3 billion. The target price is 37.48 (it closed at 35.07 on Friday). MarketWatch and TheStreet.com agree on the 0.59 estimate, but place the target price at 38.50, with a fiscal 2007 estimate of 2.27 and an "overweight" rating.

Credit Suisse analysts recently raised their target price to $39 and fiscal 2007 earnings estimate to $2.54, as well as maintaining their rating of "outperform," based not only on the iPhone deal, but the completion of the merger with BellSouth as well.

What do you think? Are investors in line for another positive surprise from AT&T?

Also check out some other earnings reports that we're following, and let us know your thoughts on earnings expectations.

All six businesses are getting stronger, margins are improving and the company has good organic growth, said James Dimon, chairman, president and CEO of JP Morgan & Chase Co (NYSE: JPM), in yesterday's Q4 earnings conference call. In addition, JP Morgan reported record quarterly earnings.

Dimon also declared victory over integrating its merger with Bank One. All the major financial and data platforms are now in place, he told investors. Dimon said due to the better operating performance, the company will have more capital that can be retained and invested which should help improve returns over time.

JP Morgan will be hosting an analyst day on March 6th to review the company's recent successes and where it will be going from here.

This stock has had a great six months, being up over 40%. However, JP Morgan is a big company and becoming more and more profitable each quarter and year. For those who want decent capital appreciation and some nice dividends, I would say that JP Morgan is the place to be.