Weekly Outlook

Click here for The Week Ahead by Reuters

Click here for Stocks in Focus for Monday by MarketWatch

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

Economic reports for the week include:

Mon. – None of note

Tues. – Consumer Price Index, Empire Manufacturing, Net Long-term TIC Flows, NAHB Housing Market Index, weekly retail sales

Wed. – Weekly MBA Mortgage Applications, Housing Starts, Building Permits, Industrial Production, Capacity Utilization

Thur. – Initial Jobless Claims, Leading Indicators, Philly Fed

Fri. – Univ. of Mich. Consumer Confidence

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

Mon. – Agilent(A), Grubb & Ellis(GBE), PetMed Express(PETS), Sina Corp.(SINA), Syneron Medical(ELOS)

Tues. – Applied Materials(AMAT), Compuware(CPWR), Fossil Inc.(FOSL), Freddie Mac(FRE), Home Depot(HD), Shaw Group(SGR), Telephone & Data(TDS), TJX Cos(TJX), Transaction Systems(TSAI), Wal-Mart Stores(WMT)

Wed. – Cato Corp.(CTR), Ctrip.com(CTRP), Deere & Co.(DE), Dick’s Sporting Goods(DKS), Federated Department Stores(FDO), Hewlett-Packard(HPQ), Jack in the Box(JBX), Mentor Corp.(MNT), O’Charleys(CHUX), PetSmart(PETM), Salesforce.com(CRM), Swift Transportation(SWFT)

Thur. – Advance Auto Parts(AAP), Focus Media Holding(FMCN), Gymboree Corp.(GYMB), Intuit Inc.(INTU), JC Penney(JCP), Kohl’s Corp.(KSS), Longs Drug Stores(LDG), Netease.com(NTES), Nordstrom(JWN), Pacific Sunwear(PSUN), Sonic Solutions(SNIC)

Fri. – Activision(ATVI), Alkermes(ALKS), American Eagle Outfitters(AEO), Cleveland-Cliffs(CLF), International Rectifier(IRF), Steinmart(SMRT)

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

Mon. - UBS Global Financial Services Conference, UBS Alternative Energy Conference, the Fed’s Fisher speaking, the Fed’s Lockhart speaking

Tue. – UBS Alternative Energy Conference, CSFB Semi&Supply-Chain Summit, Merrill Lynch Global E&C/Infrastructure Conference, Oppenheimer Moving Beyond Voice Conference, UBS Global Financial Services Conference, Deutsche Bank Tech Conference, Morgan Stanley Communications Conference, the Fed’s Lockhart speaking, the Fed’s Bernanke speaking, the Fed’s Minehan speaking, the Fed’s Mishkin speaking, the Fed’s Geithner speaking, the Fed’s Hoenig speaking

Wed. - UBS Global Financial Services Conference, Oppenheimer Semiconductor Tech Conference, Deutsche Bank Tech Conference, Bank of America Smid Cap Conference, Morgan Stanley Communications Conference, Goldman Sachs Basic Materials Conference, CSFB Semi&Supply-Chain Summit, the Fed’s Plosser speaking, the Fed’s Kohn speaking, the Fed’s Fisher speaking

Thur. - CSFB Insurance Forum, Bank of America Smid Cap Conference, Goldman Sachs Basic Materials Conference, Deutsche Bank Tech Conference, former Fed Chairman Greenspan speaking, the Fed’s Moskow speaking, the Fed’s Bernanke speaking

Fri. – None of note

BOTTOM LINE: I expect US stocks to finish the week modestly higher on buyout speculation, constructive Fed comments, better-than-expected earnings reports, lower energy prices, investment manager performance anxiety and short-covering. My trading indicators are still giving bullish signals and the Portfolio is 100% net long heading into the week.