Stocks to Watch: General Motors, Linkedin (Update 2)

NEW YORK --

Automaker General Motors (GM) reported first-quarter earnings Thursday of $1 billion, or 60 cents a share, down from year-earlier earnings of $3.2 billion, or $1.77 a share.

Excluding items, General Motors' earnings per share for the first quarter were 93 cents. Analysts were expecting 85 cents a share.

Shares of General Motors rose 1.09% in premarket trading Thursday to $23.18.

GM's First Quarter Will Benefit From More Trucks: Analyst

Media giant Viacom(VIA) reported second-quarter earnings Thursday of $535 million, or 98 cents a share, up from year-earlier earnings of $430 million, or 72 cents a share.

Analysts anticipated the company would report fiscal-second quarter earnings of 89 cents a share on revenue of $3.32 billion.

Networking company LinkedIn(LNKD) is scheduled to report first-quarter earnings Thursday after the market closes.

Analysts, on average, expect earnings of 9 cents a share on revenue of $178.58 million.

LinkedIn shares rose 99 cents, or 0.93%, to $107.39 in premarket trading Thursday.

Dow component Kraft Foods(KFT) is scheduled to report its first-quarter results after Thursday's closing bell. Analysts are calling for earnings of 56 cents a share on revenue of $13.05 billion.

Kraft is splitting into two separate publicly traded entities -- a North American grocery products company that will retain the Kraft Foods name and a global snack foods company to be called Mondelez International.

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