Either Circuit City Stores, Inc. (NYSE: CC) CEO Phil Schoonover is not getting any sleep these nights or he's sending his resume out to Monster.com (NYSE: MNST) -- or perhaps both. The nation's second-largest consumer electronics retailer reported Wednesday that it had lost $62 million in its second quarter, and the shares appropriately sunk to a four-year low as a result. Is the company doomed? I doubt it, but after rebuffing two private takeover offers in recent years, perhaps the third time is a charm.

It's hard to think that Circuit City can turn around to its former glory at this point: competitor Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY) seems ti be killing it in every conceivable way, from strategic acquisitions to store growth. The chain can't seem to click with consumers or the marketplace these days, despite being a very decent place to shop for home electronics and the ever-growing PC market. Well, despite my recent perspective, anyway. Circuit City isn't clicking with Wall Street either, as its shares plummeted 17% just yesterday on its bad Q2 news. Are potential suitors lining up outside the board's meeting room with offers? Maybe. It's never been a better time, stock price-wise.

Schoonover said yesterday on the Q2 conference call that "I think we're doing the right things to grow the company in the long term." What exactly are those 'things,' Phil? The market wants and needs to know, and platitudes aren't cutting it any longer. And, even worse, the company stated that warranty contract sales also fell in the second quarter, which are pure profit in most cases. Although there are messes in the company right now related to labor practices and management changes, Circuit City has no laser focus on anything at the moment. The bet is how long investors are waiting to see that change before bigger changes are forced.

Shares of ACCO Brands Corp. (NYSE: ABD) closed $3.50 higher Monday after announcing strong sales and earnings. The nearly 17% rise -- among the NYSE's top performances Monday -- put ACCO shares at $24.25.

ACCO makes branded office supplies for resale, suppling to retail superstores, wholesale office suppliers and mail order catalogs. ACCO's products are sold under the brands
Day-Timer, Swingline, Kensington, Quartet, GBC, Rexel and Wilson Jones.

ACCO Brands' second-quarter report states earnings of $4.5 million, or 8 cents per share, a turnaround from last year's second-quarter loss of $9.8 million, or 18 cents per share.

This weekend's Financial Times (subscription required) highlighted an article which focused on the movement to end quarterly guidance. Those behind it -- namely Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE) CEO Jeff Kindler and Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX) CEO Anne Mulcahy -- feel the move would allow companies to focus on long-term goals rather than short term fixes. This is clearly an admirable goal, but what are the costs of such a move?

The biggest argument for this move, other than the stated objective of better running companies with a long-term vision in mind, is an increase in executive job security, allowing them more time to see through their visions for the companies they are charged to run (although some, especially certain Yahoo! shareholders, would argue against this being a positive). Moreover, this would end companies massaging financial data in order to "make" certain shorter-term numbers to keep said executives jobs. Not to say this change would stop corporate fraud -- it won't -- but it will end one reason for these fraudulent practices.

The most important argument against this move is a move away from corporate transparency, which investors have been fighting for a long time to gain. For investors to get on board with this, they must be promised clarity into the companies in which they invest in some other way. Additionally, they must also be convinced the change is genuinely for the long-term good of the company, and not just to keep fat-cat execs in positions of power a little longer.

Other interesting effects, should quarterly guidance disappear, are the possibility of lowered stock valuations in the face of greater uncertainty in companies performances, and lowered stock volatility in light of there being less data for stocks to trade on. These can be said to be uniformly good nor bad -- long-term value investors would probably see these side-effects as positive, whereas day traders certainly would not.

Numbers are Actual vs. Estimate

Excellent Reports

• Goodrich Corp. (NYSE: GR) 78c vs. 67c
• Goodrich profits increased on a jump in sales of aircraft equipment to Boeing and Airbus. The company said margin expansion associated with sales growth and improved operating efficiencies are primary reasons for a continued positive outlook.
  

• International Paper Company (NYSE: IP) 47c vs. 35c
• The company's profits rose on a gain from the sale of its U.S. forestlands and a strong operating profit from its industrial packaging unit. IP is transforming operations to focus on its global uncoated papers and packaging business.
  

• Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide (NYSE: HOT) 92c vs. 73c
• Higher room rates helped to contribute to a strong quarter for the parent of hotel chains including St. Regis, Westin and Sheraton. The company has been enjoying strong travel demand and limited growth in supply. It has also been selling hotels and retaining management contracts to free up cash.
• Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) 63c vs. 57c
• The video game publisher had a 38% drop in quarterly profit but beat Wall Street targets, overcoming investor anxiety that holiday shortages of new video game consoles would hurt sales. Shares rose 6% on the news. Company CFO Warren Jenson said EA was entering a growth period.

$10.81 billion in revenue. Net income of $3.48 billion, 35 cents a share. Microsoft's quarterly earnings results (it's the company's first fiscal quarter) came in with a bang, a good 11% increase over the year-earlier quarter.

For Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), this news is sweet indeed. The company has shown strong growth in its Entertainment and Devices division, largely on the back of the Xbox 360 -- 6 million consoles sold!, trumpets the earnings release -- but, as Melly Alazraki mentioned in her preview earlier today, the company's real hopes are set on the upcoming release of Vista. Will it crash our computers? Will it suck? Will it justify the costly investments in R&D?

I'm sure many of these questions will be answered in the analyst conference call, which I'll be liveblogging -- 5:30 Eastern, 2:30 in local Pacific time. The stock was up just a touch to $28.35, and was down again a bit in after-hours to $28.20.

I just got off eBay's first quarter earnings call and no longer am I quite so surprised that the stock sold off in after-hours trading after the auction giant released its results. The stock fell 5% to $38.42 after today's 5 p.m. ET announcement. 

On the face of it, the results weren't bad. EBay met Wall Street's estimates and exceeded its own guidance -- although it did some weird monkeying around with "non-GAAP" results that used to be known as "pro-forma" and would have been higher if it weren't for stock option expensing and new accounting rules. (Just give us the straight scoop, next time, okay?).

The release's second subhead was a real grabber: "Q1 GAAP Diluted EPS of $0.17 and Non-GAAP (pro forma) Diluted EPS of $0.24." Catchy, right?

But that's not why the stock sold off.