Sunday, July 30, 2006

Weekly Outlook

Click here for The Week Ahead by Reuters

There are several economic reports of note and a number of significant corporate earnings reports scheduled for release this week.

Economic reports for the week include:

Mon. - Chicago Purchasing Manager

Tues. - Personal Income, Personal Spending, PCE Core, Construction Spending, ISM Manufacturing, ISM Prices Paid, Pending Home Sales, Total Vehicle Sales

Wed. - ADP Employment Change

Thur. - Initial Jobless Claims, Continuing Claims, Factory Orders, ISM Non-Manufacturing

Fri. - Change in Non-farm Payrolls, Unemployment Rate, Change in Manufacturing Payrolls, Average Hourly Earnings

Some of the more noteworthy companies that release quarterly earnings this week are:

Mon. - Avon Products(AVP), Chipotle Mexican Grill(CMG), Comverse Technologies(CMVT), Exelon Corp.(EXC), Freddie Mac(FRE), Humana(HUM), Juniper Networks(JNPR), Metlife Inc.(MET), Tyson Foods(TSN), Vulcan Materials(VMC), Whole Foods Market(WFMI)

Tues. - Administaff(ASF), Alliant Techsystems(ATK), Archer-Daniels-Midland(ADM), CAN Financial(CAN), Coach Inc.(COH), Computer Sciences(CSC), Eastman Kodak(EK), Electronic Data Systems(EDS), Electronic Arts(ERTS), Emerson Electric(EMR), Equity Office Properties(EOP), Hilton Hotels(HLT), IAC/InterActiveCorp(IACI), International Paper(IP), Loews Corp.(LTR), Marathon Oil(MRO), Pappa John’s(PZZA), Sirius Satellite(SIRI), Southern Copper(PCU), St Joe(JOE), TXU Corp.(TXU), Valero Energy(VLO), Verizon Communications(VZ), Vornado Realty(VNO), Wynn Resorts(WYNN)

Wed. - Allergan(AGN), Alltel(AT), Cigna(CI), Clorox(CLX), Devon Energy(DVN), Dolby Labs(DLB), Expedia(EXPE), GlobalSantaFe(GSF), Infospace(INSP), Las Vegas Sands(LVS), Mastercard(MA), Netease.com(NTES), PG&E Corp.(PCG), Procter & Gamble(PG), Starbucks(SBUX), Time Warner(TWX)

Thur. - Activistion(ATVI), Altera Corp.(ALTR), Cardinal Health(CAH), Cephalon(CEPH), CVS Corp.(CVS), DreamWorks(DWA), Duke Energy(DUK), El Paso Corp.(EP), Kerr McGee(KMG), MGM Mirage(MGM), Noble Energy(NBL), OfficeMax(OMX), Patterson-UTI(PTEN), Sabre Holdings(TSG), Sina Corp.(SINA), Sprint Nextel(S), Transocean(RIG), Tyco Intl.(TYC), Univision(UVN), Williams Cos(WMB)

Fri. - Crown Castle(CCI), Maxim Integrated(MXIM), Medco Health Solutions(MHS), Occidental Petroleum(OXY)

Other events that have market-moving potential this week include:

Mon. - None of note

Tue. - None of note

Wed. - CSFB Electrical Equipment Conference

Thur. - CIBC Wireless 1-on-1 Conference, CSFB Electrical Equipment Conference

Fri. - CSFB Electrical Equipment Confernce

BOTTOM LINE: I expect US stocks to finish the week modestly higher on mostly positive earnings reports, increased speculation for a Fed “pause”, a calming in Middle Eastern tensions, short-covering and bargain hunting. My trading indicators are still giving mostly bearish signals and the Portfolio is 100% net long heading into the week.

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