Weekly Outlook

Click here for the weekly economic preview by Bloomberg.

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. – Producer Price Index, Advance Retail Sales, Empire Manufacturing, Business Inventories, weekly retail sales

Wed. – Weekly EIA energy inventory report, weekly MBA mortgage applications report, Consumer Price Index, Net Long-term TIC Flows, Industrial Production, Capacity Utilization, NAHB Housing Market Index, Fed’s Beige Book

Thur. – Housing Starts, Building Permits, Initial Jobless Claims, Philly Fed

Fri. – Univ.of Mich. Consumer Confidence, Leading Indicators

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

Mon. – M&T Bank Corp.(MTB), Genentech Inc.(DNA), Charles Schwab(SCHW)

Tues. – US Bancorp(USB), Forest Labs(FRX), Citigroup(C), Marshall & Ilsley, California Pizza Kitchen(CPKI), State Street(STT), Intel Corp.(INTC), Linear Tech(LLTC)

Wed. – JPMorgan Chase(JPM), Wells Fargo(WFC), Progressive Corp.(PGR), Fortress Investment Group(FIG), AMR Corp.(AMR)

Thur. – PNC Financial Services(PNC), BlackRock(BLK), BB&T Corp.(BBT), Parker Hannifin Corp.(PH), Merrill Lynch(MER), Comerica Inc.(CMA), Bank of NY(BK), PPG Industries(PPG), CIT Group(CIT), Washington Mutual(WM), Seagate Technology(STX), TD Ameritrade(AMTD), International Game Technology(IGT), Advanced Micro Devices(AMD), Briggs & Stratton(BGG), Xilinix(XLNX), Domino’s Pizza(DPZ), Continental Airlines(CAL), International Business Machines(IBM)

Fri. – Schlumberger(SLB), Mentor Corp.(MNT), Johnson Controls(JCI), General Electric(GE)

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

Mon. – The National Retail Federation Conference

Tue. – Cowen Consumer Conference, National Retail Federation Conference, (RBA) analyst meeting, (SVR) analyst meeting

Wed. – Cowen Consumer Conference, Goldman Sachs Energy Conference

Thur. – Fed’s Fisher speaking, Fed’s Lockhart speaking, Goldman Sachs Energy Conference, (AEE) analyst meeting, (AMAT) analyst meeting

Fri. – Fed’s Lacker speaking, Bear Stearns Mortgage Servicer Conference

BOTTOM LINE: I expect US stocks to finish the week modestly higher on a firmer US dollar, lower energy prices, diminishing credit market anxiety, more constructive Fed comments, less economic pessimism, less financial sector uncertainty, bargain hunting and short-covering. My trading indicators are giving mixed signals and the Portfolio is 75% net long heading into the week.