Early Movers: TIF, HLF, MSFT & More

Check out which companies are making headlines before the bell on Thursday:

Tiffany - The luxury goods retailer said its holiday season same-store sales were unchanged from the year before period, below its own expectations. It also said its fiscal-year earnings will be towards the low end of its prior range of $3.20 to $3.40 per share, compared to Street estimates of $3.26 a share.

Herbalife - The company will meet with investors today to rebut charges by hedge fund manager Bill Ackman that the company is a pyramid scheme. Separately, the New York Post reported that investors Carl Icahn has purchased shares.

(Read More: Activist Investor Dan Loeb Takes 8% Stake in Herbalife)

Microsoft - The stock has been downgraded to "equal-weight" from "overweight at Morgan Stanley, which cited disappointment with Windows 8, among other factors.

(Read More: Microsoft Says 60 Million Windows 8 Licenses Sold)

Amazon.com - The online retailer has been named Deutsche Bank's "favorite large-cap e-commerce name." Deutsche Bank sees the potential for Amazon to increase revenue by 10 times over the next several years, and margin expansion as soon as this quarter.

St. Jude Medical - The medical products maker raised its current-quarter earnings per share outlook to $0.90 to $0.92 per share, compared to Street estimates of $0.87 a share. The company credits solid sales and the positive effects of cost-cutting.

JPMorgan Chase - JPMorgan will take a $700 million charge against fourth-quarter profit for its portion of a federal mortgage foreclosure settlement. As part of that deal, the bank will pay $753 million into a fund to reimburse affected borrowers.

(Read More: US Consumer Watchdog Tightens Mortgage Lending Rules on Banks)

Apple - CEO Tim Cook met with the chairman of top China wireless carrier China Mobile in Shanghai, to discuss what the company calls "matters of cooperation." No details were given, but the meeting is raising hopes that Apple may finally strike an iPhone carriage deal with China Mobile.

ArcelorMittal - The company was able to raise $4 billion in a stock and convertible note offering, despite its "junk" level credit rating. The steelmaker had expected to raise $3.5 billion in the offering, which is intended to pare down the company's debt.

Deutsche Bank - The bank made about $654 million in profits from bets on Libor and other global interest rates in 2008, according to The Wall Street Journal. That comes amid the ongoing Libor-rigging probe that's already resulted in settlements with Barclays and UBS.

(Read More: UBS Says Cleaning Up Its Act After Libor 'Shocker')

Clearwire - Investors continue to speculate whether Sprint Nextel will improve its $2 billion bid to beat a subsequent higher bid by Dish Network.

Altria - Stifel Nicolaus has upgraded the stock to "buy" from "hold," citing a solid business outlook and a recent pullback for the stock's price.

(Read More: See CNBC's Market Insider Blog)

—By CNBC's Peter Schacknow

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