Sunday, February 12, 2006

Weekly Outlook

Click here for The Week Ahead by Reuters

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. - None of note
Tues. - Advance Retail Sales, Business Inventories
Wed. - Empire Manufacturing, Net Foreign Security Purchases, Industrial Production, Bernanke Report on Economy & Policy, NAHB Housing Market Index
Thur. - Import Price Index, Housing Starts, Initial Jobless Claims, Philly Fed.
Fri. - Producer Price Index, Univ. of Mich. Consumer Sentiment

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

Mon. - Agilent Technologies(A), Bob Evans Farms(BOBE), Brown & Brown(BRO), Cendant Corp.(CD), SeviceMaster(SVM)
Tues. - Abercrombie & Fitch(ANF), BISYS Group(BSG), Cephalon Inc.(CEPH), Deere & Co.(DE), Expeditors Intl.(EXBD), First American Corp.(FAF), Itron Inc.(ITRI), Jarden Corp.(JAH), Las Vegas Sands(LVS), Marsh & McLennan(MMC), Masco Corp.(MAS), Transocean Inc.(RIG), Waste Management(WMI)
Wed. - Applied Materials(AMAT), Biogen Idec(BIIB), Career Education(CECO), Caremark Rx(CMX), Expedia Inc.(EXPE), Genzyme Corp.(GENZ), Hewlett-Packard(HPQ), Jones Apparel(JNY), Mohawk Industries(MHK), Network Appliance(NTAP), Office Depot(ODP), Outback Steakhouse(OSI), Penn National Gaming(PENN), PF Chang’s(PFCB), Synopsys(SNPS)
Thur. - Baker Hughes(BHI), Cleveland-Cliffs(CLF), CNA Financial(CNA), Dell Inc.(DELL), Dillard’s Inc.(DDS), Intuit(INTU), JC Penney(JCP), Laboratory Corp.(LH), Loews Corp.(LTR), Nvidia(NVDA), Priceline.com(PCLN), Target Corp.(TGT), Teekay Shipping(TK), Watson Pharmaceuticals(WPI), Weight Watchers(WTW), XM Satellite Radio(XMSR)
Fri. - Beckman Coulter(BEC), Campbell Soup(CPB), CBRL Group(CBRL), PG & E Corp.(PCG), Psychiatric Solutions(PSYS), RadioShack Corp.(RSH), Sirius Satellite(SIRI), Terex Corp.(TEX), Zale Corp.(ZLC)

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

Mon. - UBS Global Healthcare Services Conference
Tue. - Lehman Brothers Industrial Select Conference, UBS Global Healthcare Services Conference
Wed. - Lehman Brothers Industrial Select Conference, Prudential Automotive Meetings, JP Morgan Small-cap Conference, UBS Global Healthcare Services Conference, UBS Natural Gas & Utilities Conference, Merrill Lynch Insurance Conference
Thur. - Merrill Lynch Insurance Conference, UBS Natural Gas & Utilities Conference, Lehman Brothers Industrial Select Conference, CIBC Institutional Conference
Fri. - CIBC Institutional Conference

BOTTOM LINE: I expect US stocks to finish the week modestly higher on falling inflation worries, healthy consumer-related data, better housing data, less irrational earnings pessimism and positive Bernanke comments. My trading indicators are now giving bearish signals and the Portfolio is 75% net long heading into the week.

No comments: