Office furniture maker Steelcase (SCS) spiked higher right out of the gate Thursday morning, as traders cheered the company's solid second-quarter earnings. Steelcase swung to a quarterly profit of $2.8 million, or 2 cents per share; excluding items, earnings arrived at $13 million, or 8 cents per share. Sales for the quarter rose 4% to $599.8 million.

The results topped Wall Street's expectations, as analysts had anticipated a profit of just 5 cents per share on revenue of $576.2 million. This marks the third consecutive quarter where Steelcase has exceeded analysts' consensus profit estimates.

The shares of Lululemon Athletica (LULU) gapped higher right out of the gate this morning, as Wall Street cheered the athletic apparel company's latest earnings report. Lululemon raked in a second-quarter profit of $21.8 million, or 30 cents per share -- more than doubling its year-ago results of $9.2 million, or 13 cents per share. Revenue for the period climbed 56% to $152.2 million.

The results handily surpassed consensus expectations. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had been anticipating a slimmer second-quarter profit of 24 cents per share on $146 million in revenue.

Yingli Green Energy (YGE) took the earnings stage this morning, with the alternative energy issue swinging to a second-quarter profit of $32.1 million, or 21 cents per American depositary share (ADS). Excluding items, earnings arrived at 25 cents per share, exceeding analysts' expectations for a profit of 19 cents per share. Revenue for the quarter climbed 81% to $398.1 million, topping Wall Street's forecast of $371 million.

Gross margin also improved, expanding to 33.5% from 19.8% on a year-over-year basis. For the full year, YGE hiked its gross margin target to a range between 28% and 30%.

NVIDIA Corp. (NVDA) slumped to a new 52-week nadir of $8.65 right out of the gate Thursday morning, thanks to a little help from analysts at BMO Capital Markets. The brokerage firm trimmed its price target on NVDA from $10 to $9 and lowered its opinion of the semiconductor sector to underperform from market perform, citing the industry's bloated inventories for the negative note.

So, to put it bluntly, the stock isn't faring so well ahead of its earnings report. NDVA is expected to unveil a second-quarter profit of about 11 cents per share, up from its year-ago earnings of 7 cents per share. The company has a remarkably solid history in the earnings spotlight, having exceeded analysts' consensus profit estimates in each of the past four quarters.

Ambac Financial Group (ABK) took the earnings stage Monday night -- and the stock took a quick dive right out of the gate Tuesday morning, if that gives you any indication about the quarterly results. The bond insurer swung to a loss of $57.6 million in the second quarter, and warned that a bankruptcy filing is likely if it can't come up with a plan to restructure its liabilities within the next year.

The company's official release stated the matter quite plainly: "Ambac has insufficient capital to finance its debt service and operating expense requirements beyond the second quarter of 2011 and may need to seek bankruptcy protection."

MasterCard Inc. (MA) topped analysts' second-quarter earnings expectations Tuesday morning, but the stock had trouble finding positive ground in early trading. For the recently concluded quarter, the credit card titan banked a profit of $458 million, or $3.49 per share, up from its year-ago earnings of $349 million, or $2.67 per share. Revenue for the period climbed 6.7% to $1.37 billion, or 7.9% on a constant currency basis.

The bottom-line results comfortably exceeded analysts' expectations, which called for a profit of $3.33 per share, but Wall Street was anticipating a slightly more robust quarterly revenue of $1.38 billion.

It seems that 92% year-over-year earnings growth wasn't quite enough to impress Wall Street. Shares of DVD rental kiosk operator Coinstar Inc. (CSTR) are taking a beating as traders pan the company's softer-than-forecast second-quarter results and lackluster revenue forecast.

For the recently concluded quarter, Coinstar banked a profit of $13.4 million, or 41 cents per share, up from last year's results of $7 million, or 23 cents per share. Revenue for the quarter climbed 35% to $342.4 million. As recently as May, Coinstar predicted its quarterly revenue would arrive between $363 million and $383 million.

American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings (AXL) is prepping for its turn in the earnings spotlight. The auto parts issue is slated to confess its second-quarter results ahead of Friday's opening bell, and at least one speculator is looking for a major post-event move from the shares. Bright and early Thursday morning, an ambivalent options trader opened an at-the-money straddle on AXL.

Specifically, the trader simultaneously purchased several matching blocks of August 9 puts and calls. With AXL trading just pennies above $9, both of these options are at the money. By scooping up equal numbers of puts and calls at the same strike, the trader is hoping to capitalize on a drastic move higher or lower from the security.

Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD) is significantly higher after the restaurant chain topped analysts' second-quarter earnings expectations.

After Tuesday's closing bell, Buffalo Wild Wings reported a quarterly profit of $9.2 million, or 50 cents per share, up from its year-ago earnings of $7.0 million, or 39 cents per share. Revenue for the period climbed 12.4% to $145.7 million. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were anticipating earnings of just 42 cents per share on $141.5 million in revenue.

C.H. Robinson Worldwide (CHRW) attracted a heavy dose of put volume on Friday, with approximately 16,000 contracts crossing the tape. This flurry of activity represented about 19 times the stock's expected daily put volume.

Data from the International Securities Exchange (ISE) confirms this bearish bias, with CHRW racking up a single-day put/call volume ratio of 11.62 on the exchange. In other words, traders on the ISE bought to open nearly a dozen puts for every call on Friday.

Earnings season is winding down, but there are still a few companies that have yet to take their turn in Wall Street's spotlight. Ahead of Monday's opening bell, for-profit education issue Apollo Group, Inc. (APOL) is scheduled to unveil its fiscal second-quarter results.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are expecting Apollo to report a profit of 81 cents per share, up from 77 cents per share in the year-ago quarter. Sales for the period are projected to arrive at $1.07 billion.

Motorola (NYSE: MOT) pre-announced a second quarter shortfall and also indicated that the rest of 2007 will be difficult and non-profitable. The stock will more than likely be dead money for the next six to nine months as this company has yet to find its footing.

I wrote back on June 26th that Motorola would probably miss this quarter and perhaps the year. It has come true. Motorola is a company that is in trouble as it cannot make an operating profit on almost $9 billion of quarterly revenues. Motorola is attacking the European markets with mid-level product that is constantly under pricing pressures. The Motorola approach in Asia and China has been to penetrate the low-end of the cellular market which is also contending with evaporating margins.

Motorola had success with the Razr line-up of phones but has yet to come up with a killer-replacement phone and the Razr cycle has worn out its welcome.CEO Ed Zander, rightfully, is under huge pressure to perform as this once bellwether company is facing not only a tough 2007 but a challenging 2008. With Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone capturing market share and headlines, Motorola is hard pressed to maintain its competitive positioning in the United States.

Motorola's stock closed at $17 yesterday and I see little to any near term prospects of it lifting higher. Motorola stock may start to be interesting at the $14 level, but not until then.

Georges Yared is the Chief Investment Strategist of Yared Investment Research.

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.