Stocks in the news: Ford, AT&T, McDonald's

The following post rounds up the companies making headlines today:

Ford Motor Co. (F) shares jumped about 10 percent in pre-market trade after the automaker posted a surprise profit of $2.3, or 69 cents per shares in the second quarter, although it was mainly due to debt restructuring. While Ford would have reported a loss of $424 million, or 21 cents per share, without special items, the loss is still far smaller than the 50 cents analysts had expected. Ford also said it was on track to at least break even in 2011.

AT&T Inc. (T) posted a smaller-than-expected drop in quarterly profit as strong sales of Apple's (AAPL) iPhone helped boost wireless subscriber growth. The company activated more than 2.4 million iPhones in the quarter and more than a third of these were new customers. Shares gained 2.6 percent ahead of the bell.