3:00PM NY – U.S. Movers – Comcast, Safeway and Potash Corp advance.

Comcast Corp (CMCSA: chart), the largest cable company in the U.S., reported first quarter earnings of 26 cents vs. 15 cents a year ago on one time gains. The company reported earnings of $837 million compared to $466 million a year ago on one time gain of $500 million. The company dissolved its partnership providing the cable services in Texas and Missouri. The company reported income of 17 cents per share without the gain. The subscribers for digital cable increased by 644,000 in the quarter and revenue from video services rose 8% to $4.4 billion. The basic cable revenue rose 10% per average subscriber to $60 per month.

California grocer, Safeway Inc. (SWY: chart) reported its first quarter income of 39 cents vs. 32 cents a year ago on revenue gain of 5% to $3.92 billion in the quarter. The company earned $174.4 million vs. $143 million a year ago. Same store sales excluding the gasoline sales rose 4.5% in the quarter. The company left its annual earnings guidance for the year unchanged between $1.90 and $2.00 per share. The stock is trading near its 52-week high and risen nearly 50% in the last one year of trading.

Canadian fertilizer company, Potash Corp (POT: chart) reported first quarter earnings of $1.85 per share vs. $1.19 a year ago on revenue increase of 34% to $1.15 billion. The company said that the worldwide demand for fertilizer is expected to increase between 12% and 16% this year. The fertilizer sales rose in the quarter in the double digits. Phosphate sales were up 17%, nitrogen sales up 26% and potash sales up 69% in the quarter.


1:00AM NY, 5:00 PM Frankfurt European stocks ended higher on earnings from Bayer, France Telecom.

European stock markets closed higher Thursday after hitting fresh six-and-half-year highs, boosted by well received earnings reports from leading companies like Bayer, France Telecom and ABB, as well as solid gains in the U.S. stock market. German pharmaceutical Bayer rose 1.2% after the company posted higher-than-expected increase in net profit to 2.8 billion euros, from 600 million euros a year ago.

Shares of France Telecom rose 3.2% after it said that its Q1 sales rose 1.8% to 12.8 billion euros and confirmed its objectives for 2007. Shares of ABB rose 4.8 % after the Swiss-Swedish engineering firm, said its Q1profit more than doubled.

Among declining stocks, Ericsson slipped 2.1% after it said that its Q1 net income rose 27% to 5.82 billion Swedish kronor, but came in below estimates. UBS downgraded the stock to neutral. Swedish vacuum cleaner maker Electrolux dropped 6.9% after it reported a net profit decline. The German DAX Xetra 30 rose 0.6% at 7,387.02, while the French CAC 40 dropped nearly a tenth of a percentage point to close at 5,944.44. The U.K. FTSE 100 rose 0.1% at 6,469.40


11:30AM Wall Street turned flat, as investors turned to post-rally consolidation.

U.S. stocks turned flat, despite surging shares of Apple and solid gains for 3M and Ford. Investors turned to profit-taking after the recent rally of the Dow Jones, crossing 13,000. Apple (AAPL: chart) shares rose 5% jumping past the $100 to set a new all-time high after the company reported an 88% surge in Q2 earnings on strong sales of Mac computers, iPods and a drop in memory prices.

The company said it earned $770 million, or 87 cents a share, compared to earnings of $410 million, or 47 cents a share last year, exceeding expectations of earnings of 64 cents. Sales for the quarter grew more than 20% to hit $5.26 billion.

By sector, technology, telecoms and airlines led advancers. The strength in the tech sector was also contributed by gains for Xilinx (XLNX: chart), up 3% and Qualcom (QCOM: chart) which gained 1% after it said its Q2 profit rose 22% on higher sales of cell phone chips and raised its 2007 sales and profit forecast. Microsoft (MSFT: chart) added 0.8% ahead of earnings report.

On the side of the losers, metals miners declined as gold prices weakened on stronger dollar. Newmont Mining (NEM: chart) fell 3.6% after its Q1 profit fell sharply and came in below expectations. Transportation and banking stocks also moved to the downside. Norfolk Southern (NSC: chart) helped to lead the transportations sector lower, with the railroad company falling 2.6%.

Among other notable gainers, General Motors (GM: chart) climbed 1.8%, following 4.4% gain for rival automaker Ford (F: chart) on narrower-than-expected loss. 3M (MMM: chart) led the blue-chip gainers with an advance of 4% on strong earnings and broker upgrade. In midmorning trading, the Dow slipped 2.92, or 0.02%, to 13,086.97 after hitting a fresh trading high of 13,120.53. The Dow is now up more than 5% on the year. The Standard & Poor''s 500 index fell 3.06, or 0.20%, to 1,492.36, while the Nasdaq composite index climbed 0.66, or 0.03%, to 2,548.44.


9:45AM U.S. markets opened higher. The Dow traded above 13,000-point milestone.

Wall Street opened modestly higher on Thursday, with the Dow Jones moving further above the 13,000 mark on much stronger-than-expected earnings from Apple and upbeat results from 3M Corp. and Ford Motor Co. On the Dow, 3M (MMM: chart) climbed 4% after its earnings beat estimates and Prudential Securities upgraded the stock.

Fellow Dow member Ford (F: chart) rose 4.6% after the automaker reported a narrower adjusted loss than analysts had anticipated. Apple (APPL: chart) traded up 5% on 88% earnings jump in Q1. Technology shares also received a boost from chip maker Xilinx (XLNX: chart) which rose 3% on better-than-expected earnings.