Stocks to Watch (AMZN, CAN, BEC, APSG, DRI)

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is trading 0.75% to $127.88 in the pre-market session after Amazon.com said on Thursday its Kindle electronic book reader posted its best sales yet in the month of December, as the battle for the digital reader market heats up.

Accenture Plc (NYSE: ACN) fell 1.34% to $41.10 after Accenture recorded a fall in Q1 earnings and projects a sales outlook for the current quarter that was weaker than Street’s expectations.

Beckman Coulter, Inc. (NYSE: BEC) provides a FY10 earnings guidance in a range of $4.40-$4.55 a share, excluding items, below the average estimate of $4.56 a share. Yesterday, BEC closed at $65.74.

Applied Signal Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: APSG) posted a Q4 profit that beat estimates. During the quarter, the company earned $3.6 million, or 27 cents a share, compared with $2.5 million, or 20 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue rose 12 percent to $54.2 million. Analysts on average expected earnings of 24 cents a share, before special items, on revenue of $57.9 million. Thursday, APSG closed at $20.92.

Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE: DRI) posted a second-quarter profit that Beats analysts' estimates on Thursday, but it narrowed its 2010 profit view due to "sluggish" sales trends. In the pre-market session, DRI is down over 1%.