Weekly Outlook

Click here for Wall St Week Ahead by Reuters.

Click here for Stocks in focus Monday by MarketWatch.

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

Economic reports for the week include:

Mon. – New Home Sales

Tues. – Durable Goods Orders, S&P CaseShiller Home Price Index, Consumer Confidence, FOMC Meeting, weekly retail sales reports

Wed. – Weekly MBA Mortgage Applications report, weekly EIA energy inventory report, ADP Employment Change, Advance 4Q GDP, Advance 4Q Personal Consumption, Advance GDP Price Index, Advance 4Q Core PCE, FOMC Rate Decision

Thur. – Personal Income, Personal Spending, PCE Core, Initial Jobless Claims, 4Q Employment Cost Index, Chicago Purchasing Manager

Fri. – Change in Non-farm Payrolls, Unemployment Rate, Average Hourly Earnings, Univ. of Mich. Consumer Confidence, ISM Manufacturing, Construction Spending, Total Vehicle Sales

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

Mon. – Energizer(ENR), McDonald’s(MCD), Stanley Works(SWK), Halliburton(HAL), SYSCO Corp.(SYY), Black & Decker(BDK), Corning(GLW), Verizon(VZ), Tyson Foods(TSN), Atheros(ATHR), SanDisk(SNDK), VMware(VMW), American Express(AXP), XM Satellite(XMSR)

Tues. – Valero(VLO), Corinthian Colleges(COCO), Eli Lilly(LLY), 3M Co(MMM), Cardinal Health(CAH), Unisys Corp.(UIS), Lexmark Intl(LXK), Polaris(PII), Dow Chemical(DOW), Burlington Northern(BNI), Countrywide(CFC), Sherwin Williams(SHW), Allstate Corp.(ALL), Yahoo!(YHOO), Chubb Corp.(CB), Centex Corp.(CTX), Flextronics(FLEX), Robert Half(RHI), Travelers(TRV), US Steel(X), Zimmer Holdings(ZMH), EMC Corp(EMC), Occidental Petroleuam(OXY)

Wed. – Kellogg(K), Baker Hughes(BHI), Legg Mason(LM), Kraft Foods(KFT), Eastman Kodak(EK), Boeing Co(BA), Hess Corp.(HES), United Parcel Service(UPS), Illinois Tool Works(ITW), Starbucks(SBUX), Pulte Homes(PHM), MBIA Inc.(MBI), Altria Group(MO), Estee Lauder(EL), Royal Caribbean(RCL), Novellus Systems(NVLS), Aflac(AFL), Amazon.com(AMZN), Merck(MRK)

Thur. – Starwood Hotels(HOT), Bristol-Myers(BMY), Burger King(BKC), Mastercard(MA), Goodrich(GR), L-3 Communications(LLL), American Superconductor(AMSC), Mattel(MAT), CVS Caremark(CVS), Lear Corp.(LEA), Under Armour(UA), Raytheon(RTN), Hologic(HOLX), McKesson(MCK), Verisign(VRSN), CA Inc.(CA), Omnicell Inc.(OMCL), Stanley Inc.(SXE), Dolby Labs(DLB), Electronic Arts(ERTS), Monster Worldwide(MNST), Digital River(DRIV), YRC Worldwide(YRCW), Massey Energy(MEE), Google Inc.(GOOG), Trident Microsystems(TRID), Cerner Corp.(CERN), Altera(ALTR), Bebe Stores(BEBE), Safeco(SAF), JDS Uniphase(JDSU), ImClone Systems(IMCL), Apache Corp.(APA), Colgate-Palmolive(CL), Anheuser-Busch(BUD), Intuitive Surgical(ISRG), Procter & Gamble(PG), IntercontinentalExchange(ICE), Wyeth(WYE), Avid Technology(AVID), Celgene(CELG)

Fri. – Chevron(CVX), Arch Coal(ACI), Automatic Data(ADP), Tidewater(TDW), Ryder System(R), Nymex Holdings(NMX), Manpower(MAN), Cummins(CMI), Exxon Mobil(XOM), Gannett(GCI)

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

Mon. – (YRCW) analyst meeting

Tue. – Wachovia Healthcare Conference, Banc of America Gaming Conference, Citigroup Financial Services Conference, (NNDS) investor day, (BLC) analyst meeting, (VDSI) investor conference, (CLWR) investor day

Wed. – Wachovia Healthcare Conference, Banc of America Gaming Conference, Citigroup Financial Services Conference, (TEC) analyst meeting

Thur. – Raymond James Growth Airline Conference, Wachovia Healthcare Conference, Banc of America Gaming Conference

Fri. – None of note

BOTTOM LINE: I expect US stocks to finish the week modestly higher on a firmer US dollar, mostly positive earnings reports, less economic pessimism, more constructive Fed commentary, bargain hunting and short-covering. My trading indicators are giving mixed signals and the Portfolio is 75% net long heading into the week.