Weekly Outlook

Click here for Wall St. Week Ahead by Reuters.

Click here for stocks in focus for Monday by MarketWatch.

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

Economic reports for the week include:

Mon. – Leading Indicators

Tues. – Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index, Home Price Index, weekly retail sales

Wed. – Fed’s Beige Book, weekly MBA Mortgage Applications report, weekly EIA energy inventory report

Thur. – Initial Jobless Claims, Existing Home Sales

Fri. – Durable Goods Orders, Univ. of Mich. Consumer Confidence, New Home Sales

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

Mon. – Hasbro Inc.(HAS), Bank of America(BAC), Merck & Co.(MRK), Schering-Plough(SGP), Texas Instruments(TXN), SanDisk(SNDK), Boston Scientific(BSX), Apple Inc.(AAPL), American Express(AXP), QLogic Corp.(QLGC)

Tues. – Baker Hughes(BHI), Quest Diagnostics(DGX), Freeport-McCoRan(FCX), Forest Labs(FRX), SunTrust Banks(STI), CME Group(CME), UnitedHealth Group(UNH), Biogen Idec(BIIB), Wachovia(WB), Caterpillar(CAT), Keycorp(KEY), United Parcel Service(UPS), Washington Mutual(WM), Cerner Corp.(CERN), VMware(VMW), Broadcom(BRCM), Norfolk Southern(NSC), Illumina(ILMN), Boston Properties(BXP), Panera Bread(PNRA), Intuitive Surgical(ISRG), BJ Services(BJS), Domino’s Pizza(DPZ), Lockheed Martin(LMT), Halliburton(HAL), Royal Caribbean(RCL), XTO Energy(XTO), Stanley Works(SWK), Omnicom Group(OMC), UAL Corp.(UAUA), Linear Technology(LLTC), Yahoo!(YHOO), Lexmark Intl.(LXK)

Wed. – Travelers(TRV), PepsiCo Inc.(PEP), McDonald’s(MCD), Whirlpool Corp.(WHR), WellPoint(WLP), Wyeth(WYE), Phillip Morris(PM), PF Chang’s(PFCB), Boeing(BA), AT&T(T), ConocoPhillips(COP), McKesson Corp.(MCK), Qualcomm Inc.(QCOM), Chipotle Mexican Grill(CMG), F5 Networks(FFIV), Robert Half(RHI), Allstate(ALL), Aflac(AFL), Ryland Group(RYL), Terex Corp.(TEX), Pulte Homes(PHM), General Motors(GM), EMC Corp.(EMC), Hershey(HSY), Genzyme(GENZ), Amazon.com(AMZN), MEMC Electronic Matericals(WFR), Varian Medical(VAR), General Dynamics(GD), Peabody Energy(BTU), Pfizer Inc.(PFE), Sybase(SY), Anheuser-Busch(BUD)

Thur. – Eli Lilly(LLY), L-3 Communications(LLL), Invitrogen(IVGN), Strayer Education(STRA), AmerisourceBergen(ABC), Starwood Hotels(HOT), Medco Health(MHS), 3M Co.(MMM), Dow Chemical(DOW), Raytheon(RTN), Zimmer Holdings(ZMH), Ford Motor(F), Burlington Norther(BNI), Cheesecake Factory(CAKE), Microchip Tech(MCHP), Chubb Corp.(CB), Cymer Inc.(CYMI), YRC Worldwide(YRCW), BMC Software(BMC), Western Digital(WDC), Juniper Networks(JNPR), Kimberly-Clark(KMB), Becton Dickinson(BDX), Newmont Mining(NEM), Celgene Corp.(CELG), Diamond Offshore(DO), ImClone Systems(IMCL), Southwest Airlines(LUV), Bristol-Myers(BMY), Wynn Resorts(WYNN)

Fri. – Federal Signal(FSS), Barnes Group(B), Fortune Brands(FO), ITT Corp.(ITT), Blockbuster Inc.(BBI), Black & Decker(BDK), Kenneth Cole(KCP), XM Satellite(XMSR)

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

Mon. – None of note

Tue. – The Fed’s Plosser speaking

Wed. – The Fed’s Mishkin speaking, Fed’s Kohn speaking

Thur. – (RPRX) analyst day, (MSFT) analyst meeting

Fri. – None of note

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