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

Economic reports for the week include:

Mon. – 3Q Current Account Balance, Empire Manufacturing, Net Long-term TIC Flows, NAHB Housing Market Index

Tues. – Weekly retail sales, Housing Starts, Building Permits

Wed. – Weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Report, Weekly EIA Energy Inventory Report

Thur. – Final 3Q GDP, Final 3Q Personal Consumption, Final 3Q GDP Price Index, Final 3Q Core PCE, Initial Jobless Claims, Leading Indicators, Philly Fed

Fri. – Personal Income, Personal Spending, PCE Core, Univ. of Mich. Consumer Confidence

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

Mon. – Adobe Systems(ADBE)

Tues. – Best Buy(BBY), Goldman Sachs Group(GS), Darden Restaurants(DRI), Hovnanian Enterprises(HOV), Take-Two Interactive(TTWO), VeriFone Holdings(PAY), Palm Inc.(PALM), LDK Solar(LDK), Factset Research(FDS)

Wed. – Carmax Inc.(KMX), Joy Global(JOYG), General Mills(GIS), Herman Miller(MLHR), Oracle Corp.(ORCL), Steelcase(SCS), Paychex(PAYX), Commercial Metals(CMC), Morgan Stanley(MS), Accenture Ltd.(ACN), Nike Inc.(NKE), Actuant Corp.(ATU)

Thur. – Bear Stearns(BSC), Discover Financial Services(DFS), Cintas Corp.(CTAS), Scholastic Corp.(SCHL), Jabil Circuit(JBL), Micron Technology(MU), Winnebago Industries(WGO), Red Hat Inc.(RHAT), American Greetings(AM), FedEx Corp.(FDX), Beazer Homes(BZH), Carnival Corp.(CCL), ConAgra Foods(CAG), Shuffle Master(SHFL), Worthington Industries(WOR)

Fri. – Circuit City Sotres(CC), Walgreen Co.(WAG)

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

Mon. – (SPAR) analyst meeting, (CA) Financial Analyst Meeting

Tue. – (CHH) analyst meeting, (ALO) analyst meeting, (CBLI) Conference Call, (BCR) analyst meeting

Wed. – (UST) analyst meeting

Thur. – None of note

Fri. – None of note

BOTTOM LINE: I expect US stocks to finish the week modestly higher on a stronger US dollar, lower energy prices, seasonal strength, less economic pessimism, less credit market anxiety, bargain hunting, mostly positive earnings reports and short-covering. My trading indicators are still giving mostly bullish signals and the Portfolio is 75% net long heading into the week.