Going into this afternoon’s earnings report, Apple was expected to report earnings of $7.38 per share, but actual earnings came in well below what analysts were expecting to see at just $7.02 per share. Revenues were also lower than expected at $28.3 billion, which do represent a 39 percent jump year over year, but below the $29.4 billion that analysts had been expecting to see.

One of the company’s strongest product lines is the iPhone, which was weak during its fiscal fourth quarter. With the new iPhone 4 release just around the corner, iPhone buys put off buying a new phone until this month when the 4S became available. Apple sold just 17.1 million iPhones during the quarter, down from 20.3 million during the previous quarter.

On a brighter note, Apple did issue better than expected first quarter earnings forecast. Apple typically low-balls its forward guidance while analysts forecast higher earnings, but not this time. Apple forecast that it would report first quarter earnings of $9.30 on revenues of $37 billion. Analyst have previously forecast that the company will have Q1 earnings of $9 per share on $36.7 billion in revenues.

After hours traders are selling off the stock pretty sharply, pushing shares down 6.6% to $396.80, down $27.86.

As we noted yesterday in our CarMax earnings preview, analysts were expecting to see the company post fourth quarter earnings this morning of $0.38 per share. Earnings were higher than expected, at $).39 per share, marking the 9th straight quarter of analyst beating earnings for the company.

During the same period last year CarMax had earnings of $0.33 per share.

Revenues were also above estimates at $2.25 billion, versus analyst estimates for $21.8 billion.

Despite topping earnings and revenues estimates, the stock is trading sharply lower in today’s action. The reason the stock is selling off was a drop in gross margin during the quarter to 14.2% from a previous 14.5%.

Same store sales were up 12% during the period.

The stock is trading down 7.3% on the day to $32.06, down $2.53.

Going into tomorrow’s earnings report, analysts are expecting to see Carmax report earnings of $0.38 per share. During the same period last year the company had earnings of $0.33.

Carmax has a strong history of posting better than expected earnings… easily surpassing analyst estimates for each of its past 8 quarters.

Over the past month the stock had been in steady downward trend, but has traded up slightly higher over the past week after the stock was upgraded by Robert W. Baird & Co. to Outperform from Neutral, and raised its price target on the stock to $40 from $38.

Even with its move higher over the past week, the stock is still well below where it was trading in mid-February, so there is still plenty of room for the stock to trade higher should it report its 9th consecutive quarter of better than expected earnings.

KMX stock closed Wednesday’s trading session up 1.9% to $34.59, up $0.64.

With hopes building that the economic recovery is on solid footing, Wall Street will be looking for Pier 1 earnings as an indicator of just how much money people are putting back into their homes.

For the quarter, analysts have forecast Pier 1 to report earnings of $0.31 per share. During the same period last year the company had a loss of $0.33 per share.

The DOW closed the day up 0.7%, NASDAQ up 0.8% and the S&P rose 0.5%.

Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) reported fiscal fourth quarter earnings last night following the market close, and easily outpaced analyst estimates. Analysts had been expecting to see the company report 41 cents per share, but the actual report was much higher at 46 cents per share.

Retailer J.C. Penny (NYSE: JCP) reported third quarter earnings this morning that fell a penny short of analyst estimates, but fell in the upper range of the company’s earlier earnings forecast.

DIS stock traded up 4.8% on the day, while JCP gained 6.2% on the day.

Going into this afternoon’s earnings report, analysts had been expecting the company to post earnings of 41 cents per share. The company’s actual earnings came in higher, with a reported 47 cents per share.

For the same period last year the company had 40 cents in earnings.

Late day traders are pushing shares up 3% in after hours trading.