Disney releases earnings before it's time

For reasons still unexplained, the Mouse House results came out 30 minutes before the stock market closed - and that's a very big deal considering the results were not so hot. At one point the stock was down 5 percent before recovering to finish off 2.9 percent (it's down in after-hours trading). "We are aware that information became available ahead of its formal release and we are investigating how this occurred. We do regret any confusion," the company said. Some of the earnings drop was due to stuff that wouldn't appear to be too serious, such as write-offs for cable shows and booking ESPN affiliate fees in an earlier quarter. Also, the year-earlier quarter benefited from an extra week in the reporting period. The film side did well, but wasn't able to offset the other declines - and peers Time Warner, CBS, and News Corp all posted strong profits. Anyway, earnings per share came in three cents below estimates, and that's all it took for the sell programs to be activated. A premature earnings release is quite unusual, especially for such a widely watched company.