Morning News Update (TWX, WMT, GM, SAES, SOHU)

Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX), on August 2, 2012, posted a 33% drop in second-quarter profit after declines in magazine sales and CNN’s ratings. Net income fell to $430 million, or $0.44 a share, from $638 million, or $0.59 a share, a year earlier. Adjusted profit were $0.59 a share, beat by $0.01 a share, the average of estimates.

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Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) stock gained 0.47% to $74.90 in the pre-market hour. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Wal Mart Stores from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released today. They currently have $83.00 price target on the stock.

General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) shares fell 0.20% to $20 in pre-market hour. The company last week said that the company and its joint ventures sold a July record 199,503 vehicles in China, a 15.1% increase from last year's previous high for the month. Shanghai GM's sales in China increased 5.7% on an annual basis to a July record 97,064 units.

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The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) shares increased 4.73% to $12.83 in the pre-market hour after the company posted a second quarter profit of $140 million, or $0.18 a share, as compared with a year-ago profit of $174 million, or $0.22 a share. Earnings from continuing operations dropped to $0.09 a share from $0.24 a share. Revenue fell 5.5% to $4.19 billion. Analysts most recently expected per-share earnings of $0.27 a share on $4.69 billion in revenue.

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Sohu.com Inc. (NASDAQ:SOHU) stock climbed 4.21% to $36.16 in the pre-market hour after the company posted second-quarter net income of $12.78 million or $0.28 per share from $44.27 million or $1.10 per share in the previous year. On a per share basis, adjusted net income attributable to the company totaled $0.42. Adjusted earnings attributable to the company totaled $1.21 per share in the prior-year quarter. Total revenues increased to $255.73 million from $198.71 million a year earlier. Analysts expected earnings of $0.39 per share on revenues of $248.09 million.