Stocks to Watch

FedEx said second-quarter net income fell 18% to $283 million, or 89 cents a share, from $345 million, or $1.10 a year ago. Excluding certain items, earnings were $1.16 a share, falling below analysts' estimate of $1.31. Revenue rose 12% to $9.63 billion from $8.59 billion the previous year. Wall Street forecast revenue of $9.7 billion. Shares of FedEx fell 3.5% to $89.17 in premarket trading.

CGG Veritas announced a profitability program that the company says will lead to a positive impact of $150 million on operating income by 2012. Shares of CGG Veritas rose 3.4% to $28.50 in early morning trading.

DryShips announced that it has priced its private offering of shares of subsidiary Ocean Rig UDW at $17.50 for gross proceeds of $500 million. Shares of DryShips were up 1.3% to $6.05 in premarket trading Thursday.

General Mills, the maker of Cheerios cereal, said fiscal second-quarter net earnings rose almost 9% as net sales increased 1% to $4.07 billion. Shares of General Mills were 0.4% lower to $36.25.

BP will be liable for more than $21 billion in fines if the company if found to be responsible for damages in a legal battle initiated by the U.S. government over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Shares of BP were down 0.2% to $43.94 in premarket trading.

Bank of America said it has secured additional time to negotiate in a dispute with a large bondholder group over about $47 billion in soured mortgage backed securities. Shares of the bank rose 2.2% to $12.56 in premarket trading.

Pier 1 Imports reported that third-quarter net income fell about 46% to $21 million, or 18 cents a share, from $38.8 million, or 37 cents a share a year ago. Net sales rose about 8% to $353.7 million from $327 million a year ago. The average consensus estimate for the quarter was 14 cents a share on revenue of $352.7 million. Shares of the company were down 0.2% to $10.40.

Weighing on the SciClone Pharmaceuticals stock has been news that a phase 2b clinical trial of the company's proposed hepatitis B treatment, SCV-07, missed its primary endpoint. Shares of SciClone tumbled 6% to $3.75 in premarket trading.

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