Stocks to Watch: Apple, Foot Locker

Updated from 8:27 a.m. ET to add Apple.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- These stocks were making headlines ahead of Friday's opening bell.

Apple(AAPL) :

Jefferies reiterated a buy rating on the iPhone maker and lifted its 12-month price target to $900 from $800, saying its channel checks indicate the iPad Mini has gone to into production.

"Based on July Taiwan sales data and our checks, we believe iPad builds for CQ3 have been raised from 18M to 25M and CQ4 from 22-25M to >30M," the firm said. "We continue to think Apple will have ~15M iPhone 5 handsets by mid-Sep and the iTV will launch in CQ4 or CQ1. We remain significantly above Street EPS for FY13 ($63 vs. St $52) and think the iPhone 5 will be the biggest handset launch in history."

Shares of Apple finished Thursday at $636.34, and were trading slightly higher at $639.50 in pre-market action.

Jefferies thinks Apple's event on Sept. 12 is going to feature the announcement of the iPhone 5 and possibly the iPad Mini with a launch of iTV, or Apple TV, viewed as "less likely" at that time.

"For the iPhone 5, we remain confident that by mid-September Apple will have ~15M in finished goods inventory," the firm said. "We believe 3GS, 4 and 4S builds continue into Q4. Pricing for all of those models has been slashed already. Total iPhone builds for H2:CY12 are well in excess of 80M vs. our estimate of 81M. We do not know if Apple will have a separate announcement event in Oct for the iPad Mini, and while we also think an iTV will be ready for a CQ4 launch, we do not know how many major product announcements Apple would want to cram into Sep/Oct/Nov and see a CQ1 launch as possible."

Foot Locker(FL) :

Shares of the New York-based athletic apparel and shoes retailer were surging in pre-market action after the company reported second-quarter earnings of $59 million, or 39 cents a share, on net sales of $1.37 billion. Same-store sales jumped 9.8%.

That performance compared to a year-ago equivalent profit of $37 million, or 24 cents a share, on sales of $1.28 billion, and the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters for earnings of 33 cents a share on sales of $1.35 billion in the July-ended period.

The stock closed Thursday at $34.49, and were up nearly 5% at $36.17 ahead of the open.

Brocade Communications(BRCD) :