Weekly Outlook

There are a number of economic reports and some significant corporate earnings reports scheduled for release this week. Economic reports include Preliminary 3Q GDP(Tues.), Consumer Confidence(Tues.), Chicago Purchasing Manager(Tues.), Personal Income/Spending(Wed.), PCE Deflator Y-o-Y(Wed.), Construction Spending(Wed.), ISM Manufacturing/Prices Paid(Wed.), Fed's Beige Book(Wed.), Vehicle Sales(Wed.), Initial Jobless Claims(Thur.), Factory Orders(Thur.), Unemployment Rate(Fri.), Average Hourly Earnings(Fri.), Change in Non-farm Payrolls(Fri.), Average Weekly Hours(Fri.), and ISM Non-Manufacturing(Fri.). GDP, Consumer Confidence, Chicago Purchasing Manager, ISM Manufacturing, Change in Non-farm Payrolls and ISM Non-Manufacturing all have market-moving potential.

OSI Pharmaceuticals(OSIP-Mon.), Chico's FAS(CHS-Tues.), Omnivision Technologies(OVTI-Tues.), Neiman Marcus Group(NMG/B-Wed.) and Synopsys(SNPS-Wed.) are some of the more important companies that release quarterly earnings this week. There are also some other events that have market-moving potential. The CSFB Tech Conference(Tues.-Fri.), The Homebuilding Industry Conference(Tues.-Wed.), Merrill Health Services Conference(Tues.), INTC mid-quarter update(Thur.), Fed's Bernanke speaking(Thur.), Fed's McTeer speaking(Fri.) and Fed's Santomero speaking(Fri.) could also impact trading this week.

Bottom Line: I expect U.S. stocks to finish the week higher on seasonal strength, better-than-expected economic reports, strength in technology shares, more optimism, a rebound in the US dollar, declining energy prices, short-covering and bargain-hunting. The most important day of the year for retailers was Friday and it appears the holiday shopping season is off to a strong start. Research firm ShopperTrak said overall U.S. retail sales climbed 10.8% over last year and Visa, the No. 1 issuer of credit cards, said sales on its cards soared 15.5% from last year. The S&P 500 and Russell 2000 are at their highs for the year. The DJIA and NASDAQ will likely test their yearly highs this week. My short-term trading indicators are still giving Buy signals and the Portfolio is 125% net long heading into the week.