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.

We all know that the current economic slowdown was bound to hurt holiday spending, and today we get news of just how much an impact it had on online shopping, as comScore announced that shoppers spent 3% less this year compared with 2007.

The report was based on spending between November 1 and December 23, and showed that consumers spent $25.5 billion online, compared with $26.3 billion in the same period last year, another clear signal that people are cutting their spending because they are worried about the economy.

A bright spot in the report did show that Cyber Monday, the Monday immediately following Black Friday, was the second biggest day ever for online spending, with an increase of 15% in sales from last year, to $846 million in sales.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the poor outlook for this economy has stemmed the flood of takeovers from abroad we'd normally see in this kind of market.

Where are the Europeans? Where are the Asians? Where are the Middle Easterners? Are they all cowed into not buying our companies despite the decline in the dollar?

Consider that there have been only two deals above $10 billion this year: AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) (Cramer's Take), which bought Medimmune for $15 billion, and Saudi Basic Industries, which purchased GE Plastics for $12 billion. No one has taken advantage of the astounding decline in the U.S. dollar to buy up enterprises.

Take two that seem absurdly low: Whirlpool (NYSE: WHR) (Cramer's Take) and Black & Decker (NYSE: BDK) (Cramer's Take). Both companies have bought in an immense amount of stock. Both companies now trade at $5 billion in value. Give them a 25% haircut and you can see how much these name-brand companies are marked down.

But nobody cares.

Because the business of manufacturing nearly everything has been deferred to China, it seems to me that there must be some great opportunities in store for those who learn to communicate in the Chinese language. Corporations large and small have already taken hold of this thinking and I believe that companies wishing to thrive in a true global sense are duty bound to maintain staff fluent in English, Spanish, Chinese, and a host of other languages. Gone are the days when speaking English was the "responsibility" of foreign corporations wishing to do business with us. If we want to keep pace, we need to drop our attitude of superiority and realize that the world of business has some staggering new rules.

I'm not doing a promotion here. I'm merely examining the current business conditions and investigating some options. When considering the fact that one out of five people on this planet speaks some form of Chinese dialect, doesn't it make good sense that we should be interested in communicating with them? Perhaps they don't understand that we don't want lead in our children's toys. Wouldn't you like to explain that to them?

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Toronto Dominion, Cytec Industries, Ceragon Networks, Micron and Navteq were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• CIBC downgraded shares of Toronto Dominion (NYSE: TD) to Sector Performer from Outperformer following the Commerce Bancorp (NYSE: CBH) acquisition, as they see integration risks and believes the deal will limit the company's ability to buyback stock.
  
• Cytec Industries (NYSE: CYT) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies, as they believe near-term risks to demand and margins could bring a better entry point by 1H08. Target lowered to $75 from $79.
  
• Collins Stewart downgraded shares of Ceragon Networks (NASDAQ: CRNT) to Underperform from Buy on valuation and uncertainties surrounding the stock, which include the NEC infringement issue and increased competition.
  
• Micron Technology (NYSE: MU) was downgraded to Accumulate from Buy at ThinkEquity. The firm is cautious on the sustainability of PC related demand and questions component order levels relative to PC sell through.
  
• Banc of America downgraded shares of Navteq Corporation (NYSE: NVT) to Neutral from Buy following Nokia's (NOK) proposed buyout.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• JP Morgan downgraded Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (NYSE: RIO) to Neutral from Overweight.
  
• Goldman removed Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI) from its Conviction Buy List.
  
• Citigroup downgraded GameStop Corp (NYSE: GME) to Hold from Buy.
  
• Friedman Billings downgraded Brookfield Asset Management (NYSE: BAM) to Neutral from Outperform.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Tompkins plc (TKS), Commerce Bancorp (CBH), Tribune Co (TRB) and Progressive Gaming International Corp (PGIC) were today's noteworthy upgrades:

• Merrill Lynch upgraded shares of Tompkins plc (NYSE: TKS) to Neutral from Sell on valuation as they believe the company's exposure to the weak U.S. residential and automotive markets is priced into shares.

• RBC Capital raised Commerce Bancorp (NYSE: CBH) to Sector performer from Underperformer. They view the terms of the consent order as a positive and believe the company will now consider a sale given the resignation of CEO Vernon Hill. Keefe Bruyette also upgraded shares of Commerce to Market Perform from Underperform.

• Deutsche Bank upgraded Tribune Co (NYSE: TRB) to Buy from Hold as they believe the going-private transaction will be completed.

• ThinkEquity upgraded Progressive Gaming (NASDAQ: PGIC) to Buy from Accumulate following a recent trip to Macau and marketing meetings with management that reinforced their confidence in the company's long-term viability and strong market positioning...

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Goldman upgraded Costco Wholesale Corp (NASDAQ: COST) to Buy from Neutral.

• Wachovia raised The McClatchy Co (NYSE: MNI) to Outperform from Market Perform.

• InterOil Corp (AMEX: IOC) was upgraded to Strong Buy from Outperform at Raymond James.

• JP Morgan added Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) to its Focus List.

• Banc of America added Archer Daniels Midland Co (NYSE: ADM) to Buy from Neutral.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).

One day after my colleague Sheldon Liber wrote an interesting posts about railroad stocks, Bloomberg News reported that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) had become the largest shareholder of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (NYSE: BNI)

Coincidence? I think not.

Liber wrote that Burlington Northern along with CSX Corp. (NYSE:CSX) and Norfolk Southern Corp. (NYSE:NSC) were worth watching. He even noted that, "If you read any commentary from Warren Buffett you will learn that he looks for strong cash flow as a sign of success and resists investing in companies with a lot of debt."

It has about $6.7 billion in long-term debt. Free cash flow after dividends was $712 million in 2006. The railroad reports earnings April 24. Analysts are expecting earnings of $1.09 on revenue of $3.67 billion, according to Thomson Financial. The mean target price for the stock, which closed Thursday at $82.92, is $88.54.

Shares of Burlington Northern are bound to jump when the market reopens Monday when investors try to go all board.

Sorry, I couldn't resist one bad railroad pun.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) highlighted the possibility of a merger between XM Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: XMSR) and Sirius Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI).
• XM Satellite Radio has softened its stance about a possible deal with Sirius Satellite Radio, but any deal between the companies would face obstacles from the FCC.
• Starbucks Corp (NASDAQ: SBUX) rival Dunkin' Donuts plans to open its first store in Taiwan today as part of a regional push into mainland China. Starbucks also has expansion plans for China.
• Commerce Bancorp (NYSE: CBH) is under federal investigation by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, in conjunction with the Federal Reserve, due to the company's transactions with bank insiders.
  
• The Financial Times (subscription required) wrote that handset maker Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE, NASDAQ: ERIC) moved closed to pushing aside Samsung for third place in market share behind Nokia Corp (NYSE: NOK) and Motorola, Inc (NYSE: MOT); last year it overtook LG Electronics.
  

OTHER PAPERS:

• The New York Times reported that the Chief Independent Investigator has found that a top Interior Department official was told nearly three years ago of a "legal blunder" that allowed drilling companies to avoid billions of dollars in payments for oil and gas pumped from publicly owned waters.
• The Toronto Sun reported rumors that Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) is working to get the Beatles catalog onto its iTunes service.
  
• Investor's Business Daily mentioned Varian Semiconductor (NASDAQ: VSEA) positively in the "New America" column.