The earnings previews are for the following: Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM); Atmel Corporation (NASDAQ: ATML); Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO); Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE: CSC); Enbridge Inc. (NYSE: ENB); Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN); Ingram Micro Inc. (NYSE: IM); IntercontinentalExchange Inc. (NYSE: ICE); Level 3 Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT); Moody’s Corporation (NYSE: MCO); News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWSA); PAA Natural Gas Storage L.P. (NYSE: PNG); Plains All American Pipeline L.P. (NYSE: PAA); Prudential Financial Inc. (NYSE: PRU); Ralph Lauren Corporation (NYSE: RL); Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE: RAI); Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE: S); Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX); Vical Inc. (NASDAQ: VICL); Visa Inc. (NYSE: V); and Whole Foods Market Inc. (NASDAQ: WFM).

We have compiled earnings preview on each company using Thomson Reuters consensus estimates and added color on each if applicable.  Some are market moving, some are sector moving, and some are just interesting for traders to watch around the earnings reports.

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) has estimates of $0.40 EPS and $311.26 million in revenues.

Atmel Corporation (NASDAQ: ATML) has estimates of $0.09 EPS and $401.5 million in revenues.    Growth is gone, but it still screens as value.

Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) has estimates of $0.43 EPS and $11.23 billion in revenues.  Preliminary preview notes are available.

Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE: CSC) has estimates of $0.58 EPS and $3.98 billion in revenues.  As a reminder, CSC has warned on earnings.  This one shows up as a value stock in all sorts of investor screens but it is a value trap.

Among NYSE stocks, the short interest in AMD (NYSE: AMD) fell 15% to 80.4 million shares. Shares sold short in embattled airline stock AMR (NYSE: AMR), the parent of American Airlines, dropped by 19% to 48.8 million. Rumors suggest the company may declare Chapter 11. Eastman Kodak (NYSE: EK) may also face bankruptcy. Shares short in the company fell 11% to 70.2 million.

Shares short in BP (NYSE: BP) were down 49% to 7 million. The short interest in struggling drug retailer Rite Aide (NYSE: RAD) dropped 11% to 61.1 million. Shares short in its competitor CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS) were off 21% to 27.3 million.

In the medical sector, shares short in Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX) were down 19% to 39 million. The short interest in Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) fell 10% to 79.3 million.

The same pattern of abandonment of stocks in weak companies held true for Nasdaq-traded shares. The short interest in Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) dropped 23% to 60.6 million. The short interest in Level 3 (NASDAQ: LVLT) fell 8% to 168.6 million. Shares short in News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWSA) dropped 9% to 51.8 million. The short interest in Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) dropped 6% to 80.7 million. Shares short in Affymetrix (NASDAQ: AFFX) fell 32% to 6.0 million.

Notable increases in short interest included troubled wireless broadband company Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR). Shares sold short in the company rose 15% to 47.8 million. The short interest in Southwest Air (NYSE: LUV) was higher by 15% to 25.2 million.

Short interest as of October 14. Data from NYSE and Nasdaq.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Shares opened lower this morning on continuing concern about European bank debt. The Case-Shiller report on housing contributed to the weakness and then the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index came it at its lowest reading in three years. Shares of Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) continue to fall and First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) fired its CEO. Crude oil prices rose almost $2/barrel, and gold rose more than 3%, to top $1,700/ounce.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA down more than 205 points at 11,707.91 (-1.73%), the NASDAQ fell more than61 points (-2.26%) to 2,638.42, and the S&P 500 fell -2% or more than 25 points to 1,229.06.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today,  including a drop of AT&T (NYSE: T) to ‘market perform’ at Bernstein. Forest Laboratories Inc. (NYSE: FRX) was cut to ‘hold’ at Argus and Healthways Inc. (NASDAQ: HWAY) downgraded at 3 firms. Stocks getting a boost today included JA Solar Holdings Co. Ltd. (NASDAQ: JASO) raised to ‘overweight’ at Piper Jaffray, Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT) raised to ‘neutral’ at Citigroup, and Lowe’s Companies (NYSE: LOW) raised to ‘buy’ at Janney.

Here are today’s big post-earnings news reactions with prices during the last half-hour of trading:  Netflix is down nearly -35%, at $77.30; 3M Co. (NYSE: MMM) fell more than -5.5%, to $77.45; AK Steel Holding Corp. (NYSE: AKS) fell more than 13% to $7.52; ARM Holdings plc (NASDAQ: ARMH) up about 1%, at $27.98; Ceradyne Inc. (NASDAQ: CRDN) up nearly 10%, at $33.48; and Sherwin-Williams Co. (NYSE: SHW) up about 2.5%, at $83.62.

Several other standouts from today are as follows…

First Solar dropped more than -25%, to $43.40, a new 52-week low. The company has fired its CEO after the shares have been pummeled on falling prices for solar PV panels. The stock’s 52-week high is $175.45, and that may be in the rear-view mirror forever.

Healthways is down more than -43%, at $6.31, after posting a new 52-week low of $6.22 earlier. CIGNA Corp. (NYSE: CI) will be cutting its contract work with Healthways following Cigna’s announced acquisition of HealthSpring.

Interactive Intelligence Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: ININ) dropped more than -24%, to $25.66. The company was downgraded by two analyst firms. The company reported soft earnings this morning.

SMTC Corp. (NASDAQ: SMTX) is up more than 45%, to $2.11. The circuit board maker raised fourth quarter and fiscal year 2012 guidance.

Unisys Corp. (NYSE: UIS) is up more than 32%, at $26.54. Earnings beat expectations as foreign sales appear to be more than making up for weak federal government sales in the US.

Stay tuned for Wednesday.  We have the following events noted:

• 7:30 a.m. — Mortgage Bankers Association mortgage purchase applications
• 8:30 a.m. — Durable Goods orders
• 10:00 a.m. — New home sales
• 10:30 a.m. — EIA Petroleum status report

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AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) Cut to Market Perform at Bernstein.
The Bank of New York-Mellon (NYSE: BK) maintained Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Brightpoint, Inc. (NASDAQ: CELL) Raised to Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Family Dollar Stores, Inc. (NYSE: FDO) named Growth & Income stock of the day at Zacks.
Forest Laboratories Inc. (NYSE: FRX) Cut to Hold at Argus.
Healthways Inc. (NASDAQ: HWAY) downgraded at William Blair, Barclays, and Piper Jaffray.
JA Solar Holdings Co., Ltd. (NASDAQ: JASO) Raised to Overweight at Piper Jaffray.
Level 3 Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT) Raised to Neutral at Citigroup.
Lowe’s Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW) Raised to Buy at Janney.
Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) downgraded by Reed Hastings and everyone left who was still positive.
Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ: RGLD) Raised to Overweight at HSBC.
Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: VECO) Cut to Neutral at Sterne Agee; Reiterated Sell ar Canaccord Genuity.

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Akamai Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) is up on persistent rumors that it could be a Google takeover target.  After a 5% gan to $24.60, its 52-week range is $18.25 to $54.65.  It would require a much higher price to get a deal done and the current market cap is $4.5 billion.  Other investors have gone on to note, rather than that why not a Level 3 Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT) or a Limelight Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: LLNW)?

AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) has been called a Yahoo! potential, but now it has also been rumored that private equity firms may be mulling a deal of some sort.  Shares are up 9% at $14.37 and the 52-week range is $10.00 to $27.65.  AOL’s current market cap is $1.5 billion.

Eastman Kodak Co. (NYSE: EK) is rumored to be selling its technology and imaging patents portfolio more often than you can count.  This company is dead without those patents, but oh well.

InterDigital, Inc. (NASDAQ: IDCC) would have to rally nearly 75% to challenge its 52-week high of $82.50 again.  This one is currently in the “looking at strategic alternatives” phase and many feel that its patent portfolio for 2G, 3G, 4G, and IEEE 802 would make the company a prime candidate.  After the Google-Motorola deal, anything is possible but we do not have any real feel here to add much positive or negative at this point.

Motricity, Inc. (NASDAQ: MOTR) has just cratered since its 2010 IPO.  It has been too embarrassing and shares are under $2.00.  In late-September it received $20 million in financing and announced that it was exploring strategic alternatives.  What an embarrassment.

Netflix. Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) has started to loosely be discussed about “the value of its assets and clients” by some investors, but it currently feels like a “long and very-very wrong” hope or act of desperation.  At $117.85, its shares are down from over $300 in just over 3 months.  Keep in mind that the market cap is still $6.2 billion and usually imploded stocks have to languish for months before the company gets a large enough shareholder base that owns the stock at a lower level to approve a deal.

Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) is a name that has come up over and over as a takeover name and it hit a 52-week high of $23.30 today after more than a 4% rise.  This one is the last huge independent voice recognition software player.  It is again trading like a takeover candidate and its $7.1 billion market cap is about 5-times expected sales and about 17-times expected earnings.

Primus Telecommunications Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: PTGI) is still very small and it recently hired Jefferies to explore strategic alternatives.  Its market value is about $155 million and the $11.37 price compares to a 52-week range of $7.35 to $16.25.

Research In Motion Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM) keeps coming up as a rumor mill name for a restructuring, sale review, investor activist, and more.  With all of the problems, ask yourself this… “Who wants to buy another Palm at a premium much higher than the $12 billion RIM is worth today?”… Our guess: not many.

Sony Corporation (NYSE: SNE) has been rumored of late to be interested in buying the LM Ericsson Telephone Co. (NASDAQ: ERIC) stake in the LM-Ericsson handset deal.  Who knows on that one.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) has been out looking at alternatives and the new latest is that private equity firms like KKR, Blackstone, and a few others could be considering a club-deal.  This is a $20 billion market cap, so a buyout is not so easy for many.  Microsoft denied its interest in re-offering for a buyout and Alibaba is a yes-maybe status as of last look.

Tallying up the rumor mill here would seem silly.  There are too many companies here to count legitimately even if Apple could write a check for all of the companies and start over.  Don’t bet on that happening.  Still, this is how full the rumor mill has been of late.  Some deals may get done, but no way all of these get done.  More important is the consideration that it is possible that none of these rumors come to fruition.

JON C. OGG

A report from Bloomberg has noted that Akamai Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) has dropped some 57% from highs and that this could allow Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) and International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM) to compete for a buyout of the video and content rapid delivery provider.

We would note that this report is on the heels of Level 3 Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT) completing the acquisition of Global Crossing.  Level 3 is also now looking at layoffs in the U.S., like that is a surprise after redundancies among Level 3 and Global Crossing workers.

What is so interesting about the new value after a 57% drop is that it doesn’t matter regardless of what Bloomberg is trying to tell you.  Akamai shareholders won’t take an at-the-money buyout and they sure won’t be able to say that the $3.8 billion market value is a “fair value” in buyout terms.  They will want a substantial premium and if Akamai does truly go in-play then management is going to tell any buyer “Our stock was worth over 100% more over the last year compared to today, so don’t give us any low-ball offers.”  Trading at 7.6-times EBITDA is one thing, but when you double that it is suddenly not so cheap.

Oddly enough, Bloomberg even noted that Akamai’s co-founder said he does not see the need to be acquired and the company may even look for deals of its own as an acquirer. Akamai had a 10% bounce with the market on Tuesday, but that was because it was among the worst performers and those down the most tend to bounce the most when the market bounces.

The biggest question is what the value will be ahead.  Thomson Reuters is expecting that earnings will be $1.45 EPS for 2011 on sales of $1.14 billion, representing only about 2% earnings growth on 11% sales growth over 2010.  The 2012 targets are expected to be $1.62 EPS and $1.27 billion in sales.  It is growth, but is it enough to acquire?  The answer depends upon which larger carrier could milk more growth and leverage out of the Akamai network.

Akamai and other content delivery and bandwidth players have been the subject of many market rumors for mergers and buyouts over the last few years.  The space has also consolidated.  Still, Akamai was worth even more in early 2007 than its peak in late 2010 and the value is only a fraction of what it was back in the tech and internet bubble that popped in 2000.

Netflix is another stock that lost well over half of its value.  Could Reed Hastings suddenly accept a buyout after a huge price drop?  His shareholders would revolt faster than his customers did over the price structure.  A drop in price alone cannot generate a successful takeover scenario.  Not unless enough time passes that the shareholder base changes and where the new shareholder base owns shares at a much lower average price.

JON C. OGG

AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR) has received a rating of ‘A-’ on its series 2011-2 class A pass-through certificates that are expected to mature on October 15, 2021. The company plans to issue $726 million of equipment notes secured by 43 aircraft to refinance airplanes already owned by AMR.

According to S&P, the pass-through certificates are protected under US bankruptcy law and liquidity facilities through Morgan Stanley Bank. The liquidity facilities are intended to pay up to three semi-annual interest payments and re-marketed by certificate holders following any default by AMR. The liquidity facilities also maintain continuity of interest payments when/if AMR enters negotiations with certificate holders in a bankruptcy proceeding.

The certificates were registered under a shelf registration in September and will be purchased by a newly formed trust as each aircraft is purchased. The notes carry an interest rate of 8.625%.

S&P referred to yesterday’s reports of AMR’s possible bankruptcy and said that the agency believes that AMR’s current liquidity combined with the sale of the certificates was “still adequate.” However, if the company’s cash and short term investments fall below $3 billion, S&P said it “could lower our ratings.”

General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) received an upgraded issuer default rating from ‘BB-’ to ‘BB’ at Fitch Ratings. The company’s rating outlook was also upgraded from ‘Stable’ to ‘Positive’. The ratings also apply to GM Holdings LLC, and GM Financial Co., Inc., both subsidiaries of GM. Fitch noted, among other things contributing to the upgrade, that the new contract with the United Auto Workers “appears to provide the company with sufficient financial and operational flexibility to allow a continuation of the positive progress it has made since emerging from bankruptcy in 2009.”

Level 3 Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT) received an upgrade to its corporate family and probability of default ratings from ‘Caa1′ to ‘B3′ from Moody’s. The agency said that the now-closed transaction with Global Crossing Ltd. should allow the company to become “modestly cash flow positive on a sustained basis with two years.” The new rating was also applied to a new $650 million senior secured term loan at Level 3′s financing subsidiary and the company’s assumption of senior unsecured debt originally issued to another Level 3 subsidiary.

ConAgra Foods Inc. (NYSE: CAG) received a preliminary ‘BBB’/'BBB-’ rating from S&P on a shelf registration of senior unsecured/subordinated debt that does not include a total offering amount or a number of debt securities. The company’s corporate rating is ‘BBB’ with a stable outlook.

Thomson Reuters Inc. (NYSE: TRI) received a ‘A-’ rating from S&P on $350 million in senior unsecured notes due 2021. The company plans to use the proceeds to repay borrowing from it commercial paper program. Thomson Reuters carries a corporate credit rating ‘A-’ with a ‘Stable’ outlook.

Paul Ausick

In the latest development the company has moved to a address its capital needs with a $650 million refinancing package.  A source reported that Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) is arranging the seven-year refinancing package at an interest rate 4.25 percentage points in excess of the London interbank offered rate (LIBOR).

In earlier developments favorable to Level 3, Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) selected the wholesale data carrier to serve as a primary content delivery network provider for streaming functionality and to support storage for the entire Netflix library of content.  Level 3 announced simultaneously that it is expanding its network capacity as a result.

Level 3 noted that it will double its storage capacity and add 2.9 Terabits per second of capacity.  The 2.9T is in addition to the 1.65 Tbps that was just deployed in the third quarter of 2010.  Netflix has its millions and millions of subscribers in North America, and the real growth ahead may come from international expansion and its towers services in the years ahead.

Shares of Level 3 recently closed at $2.18 and its 52-week price range is $0.83 to $2.67.  The consensus target price of analysts representing eight Wall Street firms is only $1.99, but that is admittedly a small group of firms covering it and many have not updated coverage in quite some time.  In first-hour trading share prices posted modest gains in what went from a great up-day to a negative day in a hurry.

Level 3 has been making steps in teh right direction and its shares were on a serious run higher before the recent uncertainty took the wind out of its sails.

Jim Berdou

Level 3 Communications (NASDAQ: LVLT) is up nearly 4% premarket to $2.26, within a 52-week range of $0.83-$2.67.

PAETEC Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: PAET) is up more than 21% before market open to $5.35, above its 52-week range of $3.00-$4.95. Windstream corp. announced it was acquiring the company for $891 million.

Sirius XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) is up nearly 4% before market open to $2.19, relative to a 52-week range of $0.95-$2.44.

Sun Healthcare Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUNH) is up 55% premarket to $3.15, well below a 52-week range of $6.78-$15.01. Morgan Keenan cut the company’s price target to $4 from $11.

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) is down 2.75% premarket to $15.84, relative to a 52-week range of $14.78-$26.00.

Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) is down nearly 10% premarket to $62.80, relative to a 52-week range of $41.15-$79.40.

Level 3 Communications (NASDAQ: LVLT) is down more than 3% before market open to $2.15, relative to a 52-week range of $0.83-$2.67.

P.F. Chang’s China Bistro (NASDAQ: PFCB) is down more than 11% premarket to $34.80, relative to a 52-week range of $37.38-$53.39.