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 some significant corporate earnings reports scheduled for release this week.

Economic reports for the week include:

Mon. – Existing Home Sales

Tues. – S&P/CaseShiller Home Price Index, Consumer Confidence, New Home Sales, House Price Index, Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index, Aug. 5 FOMC Meeting Minutes, weekly retail sales reports

Wed. – Weekly MBA Mortgage Applications report, Durable Goods Orders

Thur. – Preliminary 2Q GDP, Preliminary 2Q Personal Consumption, Preliminary 2Q GDP Price Index, Initial Jobless Claims

Fri. – Personal Income, Personal Spending, PCE Core, Chicago Purchasing Manager, Univ. of Mich. Consumer Confidence, NAPM-Milwaukee

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

Mon. – None of note

Tues. – Corinthian Colleges(COCO), Smithfield Foods(SFD), Dycom Industries, Borders Group(BGP), Chico’s FAS(CHS), J Crew Group(JCG), American Eagle(AEO), Big Lots(BIG)

Wed. – Brown Shoe(BWS), Men’s Warehouse(MW), Dollar Tree(DLTR), Talbots(TLB)

Thur. – Williams-Sonoma(WSM), Sears Holdings(SHLD), Energy Conversion(ENER), Zale Corp.(ZLC), Novell Inc.(NOVL), Micros Systems(MCRS), PetSmart(PETM), Omnivision Technologies(OVTI), Genesco Inc.(GCO), Dell Inc.(DELL), Tiffany Corp.(TIF), Del Monte Foods(DLM), Fred’s Inc.(FRED)

Fri. – None of note

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

Mon. – None of note

Tue. – Morgan Stanley Semi Conference, (ANSS) analyst meeting

Wed. – Fed’s Lockhart speaking

Thur. – (UHAL) investor meeting

Fri. – None of note

BOTTOM LINE: I expect US stocks to finish the week modestly higher on less inflation concern, bargain-hunting, less credit market angst, diminishing financial sector pessimism, mostly positive earnings reports, lower commodity prices, a firmer US dollar and short-covering. My trading indicators are giving bullish signals and the Portfolio is 100% net long heading into the week.