Earlier this week, American Real Estate Partners, an affiliate of activist investor Carl Icahn made a $2.43 billion, or $36 a share, offer for Lear (NYSE:LEA). However, the company would not comment on what news is pending, or when it might be released. Lear shares were trading at $40.06, before they halted today after the company wouldn't release further information about the buyout. Lear shares surged 12% on the news that day, indicating that some investors expected either Icahn would raise his offer or another company might enter the bidding. Icahn's offer represented a 3.8% premium to Lear shares' closing price the day before the offer became known. However, the stock had climbed some 60% since Icahn disclosed in October he had increased his stake in the company to 16% of its shares outstanding.

Crude oil futures jumped more than $2 this afternoon, after a fire forced Occidental Petroleum to declare force majeure at one of the largest gas and oil fields in California. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, March crude settled up $2.00, or 3.5%, at $59.71 a barrel, the highest settlement price of the year.

U.S. movie theater advertiser National CineMedia opened up 21% in its market debut, a day after pricing above a forecast range. The centennial, Colorado-based company raised $798 million with a 38 million share initial public offering that sold for $21 a share compared with an $18 to $20 forecast.

Luxury home builder Toll Brothers (NYSE:TOL) expects to report a 19% drop in home-building revenue. The company said preliminary results showed that home-building revenue fell to $1.09 billion in its fiscal Q1. The value of the contracts Toll signed during the quarter fell 34% to $749 million, and the backlog of homes on order and waiting construction fell 30% to $4.15 billion.

Eastman Kodak (NYSE:EK) expects to complete their three-year restructuring program by the end of 2007, including additional job cuts, that will help it sustain profitability. Kodak is aiming for gross profit margins of 28% to 29%, with earnings from operations at 8% to 9% of revenue in 2009. Kodak expects total restructuring costs of $3.6 billion to $3.8 billion from the program, with job cuts of 28,000 to 30,000 positions. As of the Q4, Kodak had eliminated 23,400 jobs under the plan.

Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY) is expected to see earnings fall 21% to $0.75 a share on sales of $5.36 billion. In the year-ago period, the company reported a profit of $0.94 a share on revenue of $5.87 billion.

Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) said that its Q1 earnings more than doubled from a year ago. Shares of Disney rose as much as 2.5% in after-hours trading Wednesday. Disney reported quarterly earnings of $0.50 a share, easily surpassing expectations. The company was expected to post fiscal Q1 earnings of $0.39 a share, up from $0.35 last year. Disney said net income rose to $1.7 billion, or $0.79 a share, from $734 million, or $0.37 a share in last year's Q1. Revenue rose 10% to $9.7 billion, topping the consensus of $9.5 billion.

PepsiCo's (NYSE:PEP) Q4 earnings rose 61%, fueled in part by strong sales gains at its international and Frito-Lay businesses. The company also raised its 2007 earnings forecast. The company's net income in the quarter ended Dec. 30 rose to $1.78 billion, or $1.06 a share, up from $1.11 billion, or $0.65 a share, a year ago. Revenue rose 2.8% to $10.38 billion from $10.01 billion a year ago. In the latest quarter, PepsiCo earned $0.72 a share, compared with earnings of $0.65 a year ago.

GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK), Europe's biggest drug maker, reported a 16% rise in annual profit. However, the company expects that 2007 growth will slow as it awaits pipeline renewal. Q4 profits before tax was $2.2 billion, up from $2.08 billion in the same three months ending December in 2005. Q4 sales rose to $7.79 billion from $7.66 billion, helped by strong U.S. demand.

Waste Management (NYSE:WMI), the nation's largest garbage hauler, reported that its Q4 earnings fell 15% from a year ago, when the company had heavy business from hurricane cleanups and one extra work day. Revenue in the most recent quarter fell to $3.28 billion from $3.37 billion a year ago.

Tribune (NYSE:TRB), which has been fielding offers for its newspaper and broadcastiong operations, experienced a Q4 profit surge of 81%, benefiting from multiple gains and higher revenue. Net income after paying preferred dividends jumped to $239.1 million or $0.99 a share, from $132.3 million, or $0.43 a share, during the same period a year ago. The company earned $0.68 a share in the latest period, higher than the consensus of $0.61.