BUZZ Before the Bell: LEAP Crashes 19%, Chesapeake Catapults Up

Shares of Leap Wireless International (NASDAQ:LEAP) are crashing 18 percent in early morning hours. The company reported a loss of $41.6 million for the second quarter, compared to a loss of $65.2 million a year earlier. Revenue grew only 3.5 percent to $786.8 million, falling well short of the $831.9 million estimate. “Second quarter customer results, however, were softer than anticipated. The Company’s plan for the balance of 2012 is designed to position us to capture customer growth and improve operational performance,” explained Doug Hutcheson, president and chief executive officer.

Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:CHK) shares jumped 4.52 percent in pre-market trading. The natural gas giant announced that net income in the second quarter surged 90.6 percent to $972 million ($1.29 per share), compared to $510 million (68 cents per share) a year earlier. Aubrey K. McClendon, Chesapeake’s Chief Executive Officer, said, “We are taking aggressive and focused actions to increase cash flow and net asset value per share while also reducing long-term debt as we continue our ongoing transformation to a more balanced asset base between higher-margin liquids and lower-margin natural gas. We are prudently deploying our capital as we focus on developing and harvesting the 10 core plays in which Chesapeake has built a number one or two position.”

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After closing 1 percent higher during regular trading Monday, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares edged slightly higher in pre-market trading Tuesday. Shares of the iGadget maker have rally over the past two weeks as more evidence builds for an iPad Mini and a new iPhone. As Apple and Samsung met in court last week, an internal email was released revealing that Apple executives have been interested for some time in the possibility of a smaller tablet device comparable in size to Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) Kindle Fire or Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Nexus 7.

After closing 24.2 percent in the red on Monday, shares of Knight Capital Group (NYSE:KCG) bounced more than 3 percent in pre-market Tuesday trading. The trading firm announced a $400 million deal to save the company, but it is highly diluted to shareholders. The firms involved in the rescue will buy convertible preferred stock to save Knight, which are convertible into about 270 million shares of common stock.

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