Weekly Outlook

Click here for Wall St. Week Ahead by Reuters.

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

Economic reports for the week include:

Mon. – Empire Manufacturing

Tues. – Weekly retail sales reports, Producer Price Index, Net Long-term TIC Flows, NAHB Housing Market Index, FOMC Rate Decision

Wed. – Weekly EIA energy inventory report, weekly MBA Mortgage Applications report, Consumer Price Index, Housing Starts, Building Permits

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

Fri. – None of note

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

Mon. – Adobe Systems(ADBE)

Tues. – Autozone(AZO), Best Buy(BBY), CBRL Group(CBRL), Darden Restaurants(DRI), Kroger Co.(KR), Lehman Brothers(LEH)

Wed. – Carmax(KMX), CKE Restaurants(CKR), Dress Barn(DBRN), General Mills(GIS), Herman Miller(MLHR), Morgan Stanley(MS)

Thur. – 3Com Corp.(COMS), American Greetings(AM), Bear Stearns(BSC), Carnival Corp.(CCL), Circuit City(CC), ConAgra Foods(CAG), FedEx Corp.(FDX), Goldman Sachs(GS), Nike Inc.(NKE), Oracle Corp.(ORCL), Pier 1 Imports(PIR), Scholastic Corp.(SCHL), Steelcase Inc.(SCS), Tektronix Inc.(TEK)

Fri. – Computer Sciences(CSC)

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

Mon. – (KCI) analyst meeting, (ADVS) Investor Day, Former Fed head Greenspan on NBC, Merriman Curhan Ford Investor Summit, Merrill Lynch Media Fall Preview, ThinkEquity Growth Conference, CSFB Homebuilders Conference, Raymond James Paper/Forest Products Conference, Bank of America Investor Conference

Tue. – (CMI) Investor Conference, (AHS) analyst meeting, (WM) Investor Day, (AMB) Investor Forum, (UTEK) analyst day, (PFE) analyst meeting, ThinkEquity Growth Conference, AG Edwards Emerging Growth Conference, CSFB Homebuilder Conference, Bank of America Investor Conference, Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference, UBS Global Paper and Forest Products Conference, Keybanc Basic Materials & Packaging Conference, Merriman Curhan Ford Investor Summit

Wed. – (NCX) analyst meeting, RBC Consumer Conference, Keybanc Basic Materials & Packaging Conference, ThinkEquity Growth Conference, Bank of America Investor Conference, AG Edwards Emerging Growth Conference, UBS Global Paper and Forest Conference, Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference

Thur. – (WW) analyst day, (NDAQ) analyst day, (NCI) analyst day, (CMS) analyst meeting, (BRCD) analyst meeting, Maxim Group Growth Conference, DA Davidson Engineering and Construction Conference, ThinkEquity Growth Conference, Merrill Lynch Global REITs Conference

Fri. – The Fed’s Plosser speaking

BOTTOM LINE: I expect US stocks to finish the week mixed as a lifting of the uncertainty regarding I-bank earnings, diminishing credit market fears, lower energy prices, a stronger US dollar and short-covering offsets more hawkish Fed commentary, only a 25 basis point fed funds rate cut and profit-taking. My trading indicators are now giving mostly bullish signals and the Portfolio is 100% net long heading into the week.