Sotheby's (NYSE: BID) had a great night this week, tripling the performance of competitor Christie's (OTC: CRUPF). But, it didn't come soon enough to help the company's third quarter results.

The auction house suffered from the art market slump that was exacerbated by the global financial crisis, posting a net loss of $57.8 million (89 cents a share). This is worse than the $47 million loss (73 cents a share) it delivered a year earlier. Three analysts that Bloomberg surveyed expected a loss of 29 cents a share. Revenue was off 41% to $44.9 million for the quarter.

An embittered Sotheby's (NYSE: BID) has turned in its first quarterly profit in a year, showing signs that the worst of the art market slump may be over. The company, which has seen contemporary art auction prices fall 76.2% from May 2008 to today, reported a decline of 87% in earnings for the second quarter, but company CFO William Sheridan says that the worst of this market is behind us. Sell-through rates are up, with more inventory moving likely to help with sagging revenues.

But commission revenue seems to be headed in the wrong direction. For Q2, Sotheby's reported commission revenues at 21.3%, up from 41% year-over-year. Unfortunately, this isn't the measure you want to go up. Lower-priced pieces tend to have higher commission rates, meaning that the auction house's Q2 performance was dragged down by less desirable inventory.

Online retailer Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is due to report its second quarter earnings Thursday following the market close, and investors are hoping for a repeat performance of the company's strong first quarter results.

Analysts are expecting the company to report earnings of 31 cents per share. Ironically, when the company was due to report earnings for its first quarter, analysts were also looking for 31 cents per share, but Amazon was able to easily beat out those estimates by posting 41 cents a share for the first quarter.

Shares of the popular internet auction site eBay, Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) are moving strongly higher today following its first quarter earnings numbers that came in well above analyst estimates.

As we discussed in our earnings preview, we knew that it was going to be a tough quarter for the company, which had sales drop in the face of declining consumer sales. Despite this, the company was able to post first quarter earnings of 39 cents per share, which is handily above the 32 cents per share that analysts were expecting to see. It earned 42 cents per share during the same period last year.

Online auction giant eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) is going to be reporting its first quarter earnings today following the market close, and analysts are looking to see the company show 33 cents per share for the quarter.

eBay has been working hard to weather the current economic storm, but has a lot of work ahead of it.

Shares of online auction giant eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) have dropped sharply today, pushing the stock down to lows not hit in seven years.

The stock, which has dropped over 20% so far this year, is down 8% on the day to $10.54. One of the big reasons why the site has been struggling has been the lack of confidence among buyers stemming from rampart counterfeiting that has been taking place on the site.

There's a saying among the specialists and traders who do most of the living and breathing at the New York Stock Exchange that goes: "When the little guys are cutting back, that's an inconvenience. But when the big guys start cutting back, that's a problem."

Sotheby's auction house has abruptly withdrawn a Picasso Cubist painting that was set to be auctioned on November 3, The New York Times reported Monday.

This, as CNN's Larry King would say, is not good news.

1909 work is withdrawn

The painting, "Arlequin" (1909), was estimated at more than $30 million, and was one of the most expensive works in the fall art season. David Norman, a co-chairman of Sotheby's Impressionist and modern art department worldwide, told The Times the painting was withdrawn "for private reasons." Sotheby's (NYSE: BID) shares rose 20 cents to $7.85 in mid-day Tuesday trading.

Famed online auction platform eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY), whose Internet colleagues include Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), and Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), will be reporting earnings for the third quarter on Wednesday after the market closes up shop. What should shareholders expect from the company?

Well, according to data posted by Trey Thoelcke, shareholders shouldn't expect much. While the top line is expected to rise by double digits (around 13%) to $2.1 billion, nothing is really cooking in terms of the bottom line. The call is for $0.41 per share. eBay booked $0.41 per share in the year earlier period. As you can see, that's a 0% growth rate, and that's never good (well, unless you're a financial company, in which case that's actually great). However, there is one silver lining to the earnings story for shareholders. If you take a look at past earnings data, you'll notice that eBay has a snazzy reputation for beating estimates issued by analysts. So, I'd be willing to bet we'll see an easy beat this week.

As to whether or not this particular stock will rally upon such news, that's difficult to say. If Monday's rallying sentiment makes another visit on Wednesday, then I'd say eBay could be an interesting earnings trade, mostly because it isn't far from its 52-week low. Unfortunately, I think any rally that we get in the market right now is not to be trusted. It just can't be. Profit-taking is always going to be waiting to sap the power out of any rally, simply because we know the economy isn't going to be great for many months to come. So, even though I like the technical set-up to some degree vis a vis eBay's earnings-beating history, I personally wouldn't be buying. For me to trust any rally, I'd need to see some confirmations and additional up days.

Most investors/readers know about the stream of U.S. economic statistics originating from the U.S. Commerce and Labor Departments, and from other Washington agencies, that form the basis for 'taking the pulse' of the economy.

But more experienced investors know about that group of 'unofficial statistics' that fill-in the economic landscape and frequently provide clues regarding future economic activity that the others do not. In this category, you'll find mall traffic levels, those infamous corrugated box orders, and package deliveries, as metrics of significance.

And another metric worth keeping an eye on, in the interpretation of stock exchange specialists? The demand and prices for fine art.

Fine art, antiques, and collectibles are the aesthetic knick-knacks of the gentry. Or as one New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: NYX) specialist put it, "A lot of the other metrics measure how the little guy is doing. Art demand measures how the big guys are doing."

The significance? "When the little guy is pulling back, that's a concern. But when the big guys are pulling back, now that's a problem," he said.

Art demand slowdown telegraphing global slump?

Moreover, a problem may be surfacing with the 'big guys.' Sotheby's, the world's largest, publicly-traded auction house has dropped about 20% in the past week on concern the global art market may be slowing, Bloomberg News reported. Sotheby's (NYSE: BID) shares declined 39 cents to $22.64 in Friday afternoon trading.

Sotheby's contemporary art auction on Wednesday was not a confidence builder. The sale totaled $10.4 million, well below the $14 million high estimate, will only 69% of lots selling, Bloomberg News reported. In comparison, during a similar sale a year ago, 81% of lots were purchased.

Do you like auctions? Personally, I don't. Sure, the stock market is essentially an auction, but it's an auction without a lot of noise (at least on my end). Anyway, this brings me to a BusinessWeek piece on eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) and its evolution. It looks like auctions are no more fit to survive than the dinosaurs were. Research overwhelmingly shows that users of the most famous online auction destination in the world would rather pay a fixed price for an item than haggle over it like a frantic trader at a busy bazaar.

Now, as one commenter made clear in the article, this changes the essential gene structure of eBay's DNA. But is mutation necessarily bad in this case? Not to my way of thinking. To be honest, I haven't done any eBaying directly; I usually use a friend to acquire an item for me if I'm looking for something. Not only am I too lazy to open an account, but I dread having to play the auction game. Why put up with such nuisance? When I want to buy something, I don't want to compete and see values change. Think about it: when you go to Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), do you want to barter over a bar of soap?

Okay, so we're not talking about bars of soap. We're talking about items that, to be fair, do lend themselves to the auction motif. Comic books, autographed photos, rare recordings, and so forth, are definitely fair game for the electronic gavel. Still, it's annoying. Wouldn't you rather know that a rare copy of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for the Atari 2600 is $200, take it or leave it, and that you didn't need to get down in the pits to start bidding for it?

Shares of the online auction site eBay, Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) have been surging today after positive remarks from Banc of America Securities analyst Brian J. Pitz, who stated that the company is on track for a "solid" first quarter to the year.

Pitz made his remarks after analyzing the company's recent proprietary listings and conversion rate tracking data. As a result of his findings, Pitz gives the stock a price target of $38, and lifted his revenue forecast for the quarter from $2.03 billion up to $2.08 billion. This is slightly higher than the $2.06 billion that Wall Street is expecting to see, and as a result shares of the e-commerce giant have surged 5% today to $30.96, and hit a high earlier in the session up at $31.21.

eBay has been in the news a lot lately, but for the most part, it has not been positive. The company has been fighting off speculation that a seller's strike late last month that extended into the first week of March had had any material impact on the site's listing numbers. Some have argued that the strike led to a 13% drop in product listings, but eBay has adamantly denied any impact what-so-ever, and instead has insisted that a promotion that ran right before the strike had artificially inflated product listing numbers that were used to compute the strike's effectiveness.

When I heard the recent news that Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC) was the first, and hopefully only, major financial institution that was going under as a result of the recent credit fiasco, I wondered just how fast the company would be ripped apart and sold off in chunks. Well, the deal is not even finalized yet, and we are already seeing parts of the company up for sale -- just not the parts one would imagine. It seems that some Bear Stearns workers are quickly looking to cash in with some creative eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) auctions.

If you head over to eBay's auction site and search for Bear Stearns, you will currently find 201 items listed for auction. Items include all sorts of memorabilia of the soon to be devoured financial institution. You can pick up t-shirts, coffee mugs, stuffed animals, and even a nice lunch with a friendly Bear Stearns employee (current bid only $1.99, reserve not yet met)!

The lunch really caught my attention, and if I lived in New York I think I would be willing to bid up to at least $10 for this adventure. The seller is also including in the deal a menu and souvenir cafeteria card. Not a bad deal if you are the lucky winner. The seller promises "Huddled whispering, shell-shocked expressions and dazed employees." Of course the buyer will be responsible for transportation to and from Bear Stearns.

The choppy/consolidating (or perhaps worse) market conditions sometimes give the impression that growth plays do not exist, but that is not the case, and one growth company worth reviewing is Sotheby's.

Sotheby's (NYSE: BID) is the world's second-largest auctioneer of fine arts, antiques and collectibles, offering property in numerous collecting categories, including paintings, jewelry, decorative arts, and books.

Analysts expect Sotheby's to register strong revenue growth in 2008, with an improving financial position, and modest debt. Furthermore, costs remain reasonable. The Reuters F2008/F2009 EPS consensus estimates for the company are $2.82/$3.14.

If nothing else... eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) users are a feisty bunch. After just coming off a multi-week sellers strike, they are already planning their next revolt, tentatively set to launch May 1.

The most recent strike was orchestrated in reaction to recent changes made on the site and lasted from the week of Feb. 18 through last night. While eBay is steadfast that the recent site boycott had no effect on its business, not everyone is buying that, and are anticipating hitting the site again come May.

Some statistics have shown that eBay witnessed a 13% drop in its online listings, but eBay denies any impact. The site claims that the statistics out there are not taking into account a 20-cent listings promotion that it had launched just prior to the boycott that temporarily inflated its auction listings.

One source of contention among eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) users have always been that the company does not listen, or least hear, their concerns. Well, the company is hoping to change that when it launches a new blog next month, "eBay Ink.", which will be manned by social media veteran Richard Brewer-Hay.

Fortune Small Business was able to take a crack at Brewer-Hay and ask him the tough questions that many eBay users are bound to be asking themselves. It was a pretty interesting read to be sure, and according to Brewer-Hay his new blog will be completely his words with absolutely no control by eBay itself.

eBay has definitely been under fire lately. The e-commerce giant has been accused of losing touch with its users, and acting more out of greed than anything else. The company is hoping that this new blog will give users a more direct look into the internal operations and decisions by the company. While eBay currently has blogs and forums for its users to use, these are more geared towards more traditional corporate communications.