Premarket Movers: Yahoo, Apollo rise; GM falls

According to The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft has been in contact with several media companies about a deal that would, in effect, break up Yahoo--separating its search engine from the rest of its business.

Yahoo shares jumped 6.4 percent in premarket trading to $21.50, while Microsoft added 18 cents to $27.05.

Shares of Apollo Group Inc. soared 17.4 percent to $54.29 in the early going after the operator of the University of Phoenix said student enrollment and revenue rose in the third quarter.

Starbucks Corp. saw its shares move 5 percent higher to $16.42 in early action after the coffee purveyor said Tuesday it would shutter 600 company-owned stores in the next year.

Shares of General Motors Corp. fell in early trading, following a run-up Tuesday after the car maker posted an 18 percent drop in sales for the month of June--less than analysts had expected. But several analysts lowered their ratings on GM before the bell, sending shares down 3.8 percent to $11.30.

A Lehman Brothers analyst downgraded Lincare Holdings Inc. to "Equal weight" from "Neutral," saying new Medicare rules will hurt the home oxygen and respiratory therapy provider's profit in 2009. Shares dropped 4.8 percent to $27.50.

Shares of Circuit City fell 12.9 percent to $2.22 after Blockbuster Inc. withdrew its more than $1 billion offer for the struggling electronics retailer. Shares of Blockbuster, the nation's largest movie-rental chain, rose 15 percent to $2.98.