Sunday, December 18, 2005

Weekly Outlook

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

Economic reports for the week include:

Mon. - NAHB Housing Market Index
Tues. - Producer Price Index, Housing Starts
Wed. - Final 3Q GDP, Final 3Q Personal Consumption
Thur. - Personal Income, Personal Spending, PCE Deflator, Initial Jobless Claims, Leading Indicators
Fri. - Durable Goods Orders, Univ. of Mich. Consumer Confidence, New Home Sales

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

Mon. - Circuit City Stores(CC)
Tues. - BISYS Group(BSG), Factset Research(FDS), Flowserve(FLS), Jabil Circuit(JBL), Morgan Stanley(MWD), Nike(NKE), Palm Inc.(PALM)
Wed. - Commercial Metals(CMC), Carmax(KMX), Biomet(BMET), Bed Bath & Beyond(BBBY), Family Dollar(FDO), FedEx(FDX), Micron Technology(MU), Paychex(PAYX), Red Hat(RHAT)
Thur. - AG Edwards(AGE), American Greetings(AM), Cintas Corp.(CTAS), ConAgra Foods(CAG), General Mills(GIS), Solectron(SLR)
Fri. - 99 Cents Only(NDN)

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

Mon. - None of note
Tue. - Semi Book-to-Bill
Wed. - None of note
Thur. - None of note
Fri. - None of note

BOTTOM LINE: I expect US stocks to finish the week higher on more positive economic/earnings data, declining energy prices, short-covering, seasonal strength, moderating inflation fears and increasing inflows. My trading indicators are still giving bullish signals and the Portfolio is 75% net long heading into the week.

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