A.M. Buzzers: Barnes & Noble to Team Up with Microsoft? Groupon Jumps 8%

Shares of Barnes & Noble Inc. (NYSE:BKS) are up more than 2% in morning trading. There is speculation and rumors floating around that the company will announce a strategic partnership with Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) to offer a tablet or e-reader. Microsoft has a special announcement after the close and shares edged slightly lower in pre-market trading.

General Motors Co. (NYSE:GM) fell .87 percent in early trading. The automaker continues to scale back advertising costs. After announcing to pull ads from Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), GM unveiled that it plans to negotiate with TV networks for price cuts as much as 20 percent on this year’s advertising for fall prime-time programs.

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Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ:GRPN) shares bounced 8.4 percent in morning market trading. The online company received an upgrade to Overweight from Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS). The firm has a price target of $18 on shares and believes competitors such as Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) have “not gained meaningful traction or deployed new innovations.”

AK Steel Holding Corp. (NYSE:AKS) shares dropped over 6% percent in early trading. The company announced that it expects to earn a second-quarter profit of 4 cents to 6 cents per share, compared to the consensus of 11 cents per share. AK Steel explained, “”Uncertainty and volatility with respect to near-term economic conditions in the United States and in other markets served by the company, including a recent deterioration in spot market pricing.”

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