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Before the bell: Futures higher as investors eye Bear Stearns news (BSC, JPM, BAC)

Tiffany & Co. (NYSE: TIF) shares are soaring over 11% in premarket trading after the jewelry retailer reported fourth-quarter earnings this morning, saying profit fell 16%, hurt partly by loans made to a diamond company. On an adjusted basis, however, results beat analyst expectations on strong international results. Excluding one-time charges, profit was $1.27 per share, above the $1.21 analysts expected and revenue rose 10% to $1.05 billion from $958.9 million last year, matching analysts' predictions. While U.S. retail sales rose 4%, international retail sales rose 21%.

Palm Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) shares tumbled 4.7% in after-hours trading Thursday after the smart-phone maker reported third quarter earnings. With formidable competitors such as Apple and Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM), Palm's third-quarter loss comes as no surprise. For the quarter, Palm lost $31.5 million, or 30 cents per share, compared with a profit of $11.8 million, or 11 cents per share in the year-ago period, while revenue fell 24% over the same period last year. Results came in below analyst expectations. Even taking Palm's reorganization into account with the new Centro and laying off of employees among other measures, it's hard to see Palm bouncing back in the near future. Lehman Brothers cut its target price on the stock to $4 from $5, maintaining its Underweight rating on it. The stock recently exchanged hands for about $4.50.

Notable analyst calls:

• The Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) was reduced to Neutral from Buy at UBS.
• UBS also downgraded U.S. Steel (NYSE: X) from Neutral to Reduce.
• Lehman Brothers cut delivery companies target prices. FedEx (NYSE: FDX)'s target was cut to $106 from $116. Lehman rates the stock at Equal-Weight. It also cut UPS (NYSE: UPS)'s target to $81 from $84, but maintained its Overweight on the stock.

While not really "newsy", yet another convert to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s iPhone from RIM's BlackBerry wrote about his experience in CNet's piece titled: The inevitability of the iPhone. If what was going to protect the BlackBerry from competition was Apple's focus on the consumer, that now seems to be in the past. RIM may have to quickly adjust its strategy.

The New York Times wrote a piece on Google (NASDAQ: GOOG)'s new search-within-search tool that seems to have made retailers and web publishers mad as Google helps users search within their sites.