Sunday, October 28, 2007

Weekly Outlook

Click here for the Wall St. Week Ahead by Reuters.

Click here for Stocks in Focus for Monday by MarketWatch.com.

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. – None of note

Tues. – Consumer Confidence, weekly retail sales reports

Wed. – Weekly EIA energy inventory data, weekly MBA Mortgage Applications report, ADP Employment Change, Advance 3Q GDP, Advance 3Q Personal Consumption, Advance 3Q GDP Price Index, Advance 3Q Core PCE, 3Q Employment Cost Index, Chicago Purchasing Manager Index, Construction Spending, FOMC Rate Decision

Thur. – Challenger Job Cuts, Personal Income, Personal Spending, PCE Core, Initial Jobless Claims, ISM Manufacturing, ISM Prices Paid, Total Vehicle Sales

Fri. – Change in Non-farm Payrolls, Unemployment Rate, Average Hourly Earnings, Factory Orders

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

Mon. – CNA Financial(CNA), Loews Corp.(LTR), Louisiana-Pacific(LPX), Northwest Air(NWA), RadioShack(RSH), Verizon Communications(VZ), Humana(HUM), Kellogg(K), CB Richard Ellis(CBG), Post Properties(PPS), Vulcan Materials(VMC), Bausch & Lomb(BOL), Pitney Bowes(PBI)

Tues. – Automatic Data Processing(ADP), BJ Services(BJS), Gartner Inc.(IT), Goodyear Tire(GT), Liz Claiborne(LIZ), MGM Mirage(MGM), Qwest Communications(Q), Under Armour(UA), Chipotle Mexican Grill(CMG), DreamWorks(DWA), McKesson Corp.(MCK), Omniture Inc.(OMTR), Sirf Technology(SIRF), AGCO Corp.(AG), Avon Products(AVP), Becman Coulter(BEC), Buffalo Wild Wings(BWLD), Colgate-Palmolive(CL), Energizer Holdings(ENR), Masco(MAS), Office Depot(ODP), Procter & Gamble(PG), Safeco(SAF), Titanium Metals(TIE), United States Steel(X), Vornado Realty(VNO), Wynn Resorts(WYNN)

Wed. – Constellation Energy(CEG), Foundation Coal(FCL), Garmin Ltd.(GRMN), IAC/InterActiveCorp(IACI), Mastercard Inc.(MA), SPX Corp(SPW), Transocean Inc.(RIG), Weyerhaeuser(WY), Boyd Gaming(BYD), Kraft Foods(KFT), AvalonBay(AVB), Conseco(CNO), JDS Uniphase(JDSU), MetLife(MET), Advance Auto Parts(AAP), Amdocs(DOX), Clorox(CLX), Gerber Scientific(GRB), Hilton Hotels(HLT), Jones Apparel(JNY), MicroStrategy(MSTR), Newmont Mining(NEM)

Thur. – Administaff(ASF), Alliant Techsystems(ATK), American Superconductor(AMSC), AmerisourceBergen(ABC), Becton Dickinson(BDX), Dominion Resources(D), Medco Health(MHS), Nymex Holdings(NMX), Timberland(TBL), Williams Cos(WMB), Eastman Kodak(EK), Sprint Nextel(S), Electronic Arts(ERTS), Western Digital(WDC), CA Inc.(CA), CVS Caremark(CVS), Electronic Data(EDS), Exxon Mobil(XOM), International Game Technology(IGT), Las Vegas Sands(LVS), OfficeMax(OMX), Sina Corp.(SINA), Tesoro Corp.(TSO), VeriSign(VRSN), NYSE Euronext(NYX)

Fri. – Barnes Group(B), Martha Stewart(MSO), Viacom(VIA/B), Cigna Corp.(CI), Duke Energy(DUK), Applebees(APPB), aQuantive Inc.(AQNT), Chevron Corp.(CVX), Morningstar(MORN), Station Casinos(STN), Washington Post(WPO)

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

Mon. – Johnson Rice Consumer Conference, (ETH) Investor Conference

Tue. – Johnson Rice Consumer Conference, (AKAM) analyst meeting, (YUM) Investor Day

Wed. – (GR) Analyst Meeting

Thur. – Oppenheimer Restaurant Conference

Fri. – (FFIV) Analyst Meeting, (PKI) Analyst Meeting

BOTTOM LINE: I expect US stocks to finish the week modestly higher on better-than-expected earnings reports, bargain-hunting, less economic pessimism, a 25 basis point fed funds rate cut and short-covering. My trading indicators are giving mostly bullish signals and the Portfolio is 75% net long heading into the week.

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