Stocks to Watch: GM, Sony, Bristol-Myers

NEW YORK -- General Motors (GM) is expected by analysts Thursday to post second-quarter earnings of 78 cents a share on revenue of $38.28 billion.

The automaker said Wednesday that U.S. sales in July declined 6% as fleet sales fell 15% and retail sales fell 3%. Fleet sales account for about a quarter of GM's business.

U.S. Auto Sales in July Gain 9% but Ford and GM Slip

Sony's (SNE) quarterly losses widened from a year earlier and the Japanese electronics giant reduced its earnings outlook for the fiscal year.

Sony posted a loss in the April-June quarter of 24.6 billion yen ($316 million) compared with a year-earlier loss of 15.5 billion, hurt by a strong yen and lower sales of LCD TVs. Sales rose 1.4% to 1.52 trillion yen.

Sony lowered its outlook for the fiscal year through March 2013 to a profit of 20 billion yen; it projected 30 billion yen back in May.

Bristol-Myers Squibb(BMY) suspended a mid-stage study of its experimental hepatitis C drug BMS-094 due to a serious safety issue.

The safety issue that forced the company to suspend the phase II study of BMS-094 is believed to be heart failure, according to ISI Group analyst Mark Schoenebaum

BMS-094 was the sole reason behind Bristol-Myers' $2.5 billion acquisition of Inhibitex last January.

Bristol's Hep C Drug Blow Up May Benefit Gilead, Idenix, Vertex Pharma

Yelp(AAPL) posted Wednesday stronger-than-expected second-quarter revenue.

Yelp, which lets users find and review restaurants and other places of interest, reported a loss of 3 cents a share on $32.7 million in revenue, up 67% from last year. . Analysts were expecting a loss of 6 cents a share on sales of $30.5.

Yelp noted average monthly unique visitors rose 52% from a year earlier to more than 78 million and active local business accounts jumped 113%.

Yelp Screams Higher on Strong Revenue