Netflix reported its third quarter results last night, which were actually above analyst estimates, but shares are tradign down over 35% in premarket trading as investors react to news of such a massive drop in the company’s subscribers, its first in years.

Earnings for the quarter were $1.16 per share, on revenues of $822 million. Analysts had been expecting to see the company report earnings of $0.96 per share, on revenues of $812.5 million.

Typically when a company reports such strong earnings and revenues its stock trades sharply higher, but investors feel as though the subscriber drop that Netflix saw during the quarter may not be over just yet. Netflix has historically been very good at understanding what its customers want, and that is the reason why it became the leader in DVD rental and streaming video, but a couple big blunders earlier this year have left its subscribers, and investors scratching their heads and wondering if Netflix has lost its ability to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to giving its subscribers what they want.

Netflix’s first big mistake was to raise its monthly fees. While this did result in a new record for revenues, the company paid for that with few subscribers, and in its highly competitive insdustry, subcriber numbers are the key to success. Following the decision to raise its rates, it made an even more dramatic blunder in its decision to split its streaming and DVD rental business. It later changed its mind and reversed the decision to split to the 2 businesses, but the impact the decision had on its customers was not so easy to reverse.

Has Netflix lost touch with its customers? It definitely did earlier this year, and while it has tried to correct its mistakes, you have to wonder if / when the next big mistake will come from the company’s management. Netflix still has a solid business model, but once a company loses its customers confidence, it is very hard to regain it, and we will just have to see if Netflix is able to get back on track, or if customers will continue to look for other ways to get their streaming media.

The stock is down 37%, or $44.00 in premarket trading to $74.77

Going into this afternoon’s earnings report, analysts had been expecting to see Alcoa post earnings of $0.22 per share, but were disappointed to see earnings come in under expectations at $0.15 per share.

Despite missing its earnings estimate, the company was able to post better than expected revenues for the quarter of $6.4 billion, above the $6.2 billion that analysts had been expecting to see.

Alcoa’s CEO, Klaus Kleinfeld, blamed the lower than expected earnings numbers on falling aluminum prices, and uncertainty in Europe, which resulted in a tough environment for the company. Despite the lower than expected earnings, the company did maintain its growth forecast for the remainder of the year.

Since Alcoa is the first major company to report earnings, and since it makes aluminum for a wide variety of industries, it is viewed as a bellwether stock, and investors tend to place a lot of importance on its earnings reports. Just because Alcoa disappointed this afternoon does not necessarily mean that the rest of the earnings season is going to be weak, but it definitely does not paint a pretty picture either. We will get a better idea of what to expect during the remainder of the earnings season later this week with JP Morgan and Google report their quarterly numbers.

The stock was up a little over 2% in today’s session, but has dropped 4.2% in after hours trading.

Going into this morning’s first quarter earnings report, analysts had been expecting to see State Street report earnings of $0.85 per share, but actual earnings came in above estimates at $0.88 per share.

During the same period last year the company had earnings of $0.75.

Revenues during the quarter were $2.36 billion, versus analyst estimates for $2.29 billion.

Assets under management rose 7.7% year over year to $2.1 trillion.

Going into last night’s first quarter earnings report, analysts had been expecting to see Alcoa report earnings of $0.27 per share, on revenues of $6.3 billion.

Alcoa kicked off the earnings season by posting better than expected earnings of $0.28 per share, but revenues disappointed at just $6 billion.

The company reaffirmed its view of global aluminum demand in 2011 of 12%.

The stock is trading down 4.3% in premarket trading.

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.

• Frontier Oil Corporation (FTO) : The stock hit a new 52 week high today of $29.47, and is currently trading up 3.2% to $29.47, up $0.91. Oil prices are up $0.65 a barrel today to $104.63.
• Verizon Communications (VZ) : The stock hit a new 52 week high today of $38.42, and is currently trading up 1.4% to $38.27, up $0.52. The telecom industry is up 1.1% on the day.
• AmerisourceBergen Corp. (ABC) : The stock hit a new 52 week high today of $39.74, and is currently trading up 0.6% to $39.64, up $0.26. The overall drug Wholesale Industry is up 0.3% on the day.

Going into this morning’s earnings report, analysts had been expecting to see Apollo Group report earnings of $0.69 for its fiscal second quarter. Adjusted earnings were higher than estimates at $0.84 per share, but actual results showed a loss of $0.45 per share.

The primary reason why the company had such a big loss was due to a drop in new student enrollments.

Apollo is the parent company for Pheonix University, and it is working hard to attract new students to its program. In order to attract new students, the company has been allowing students to try out their programs for free before deciding if they want to join the program full time.

In addition to allowing students a trial period, Apollo is also investing heavily into marketing itself which is also weighing on the company’s bottom line. The amount that Apollo pays to put a new student into its program has doubled over the past year to $3,200 .

Looking ahead to its full year 2011 results, Apollo now expects to see net revenue in a range of $4.65 billion to $4.75 billion. Analysts have previous forecast full year revenues of $4.69 billion.

The stock is trading down 10.2% in premarket trading.

GameStop had a very respectable 10% jump in sales, spurred by strong demand for hit titles such as Activision (ATVI)’s Call of Duty Black Ops.

Going into this morning’s earnings report, analysts had been expecting to see GameStop post earnings of $1.55 per share, but actual earnings came in slightly higher at $1.56.

During the same period last year the company had earnings of $1.29.

The majority of the company’s revenues comes from sales of new games, and in this area it saw a sales increase of 2.1% during the quarter. Used game sales gained more ground, rising 3.7% in the quarter. The fastest growing area of GameStop’s business was its sale of hardware devices, which were up 5.9% in the quarter.

The stock is trading up 3.2% this morning to $21.77, up $0.66.

Along with an overall up market, we also saw a couple big name stocks hit new 52 week highs during the day.

Here are a couple of notable stocks that rose to new 52 week highs today:

• Baidu (BIDU) closed the day up 4.3% to $132.58, up $5.49. The stock hit a new 52 week high of $133.97 earlier in the day.
• Discover Financial (DFS) closed the day up 5.3% to $23.44, up $1.19. The stock hit a new 52 week high of 23.64 earlier in the day.
• Caterpillar (CAT) closed the day down 0.03% to 106.76, down  -0.03. The stock hit a new 52 week high of 107.70 earlier in the day.

Here are a couple of the stocks that traded up to new highs today:

• Motorola (MOT) currently up 1.4% and hit new 52 week high of $9.05, currently trading at $9.01.
• Qualcomm (QCOM) currently up 1.0% to $49.94 and hit 52 week high of $49.98.
• Procter & Gamble (PG) hit a new 52 week high of $65.38 and is currently trading down 0.4% to $64.70.