The Week Ahead: Earnings Galore

The Economic Calendar is quiet in the early part of this week but there are important reports at the end of the week. On Thursday is the Durable Goods report, for which the consensus estimates a 2.0% increase. On Friday is the Preliminary Estimate of 2Q GDP, which the consensus has pegged at 3.2%. That sounds a little high to me based on the economic data table I’ve been compiling.

EconomicData

Bad and Deteriorating	Bad but Improving	Good but Deteriorating	Good and Improving
Existing Homes (May)	Chicago Fed NAI (May)	Consumer Confidence (June)	Real Disposable Income
Employment (June)	Durable Goods (May)	Personal Spending	ISM Manufacturing (June)
New Home Sales (May)	Construction Spending	Retail sales (June)	ISM Services (June)
ATA Truck Tonnage (May)	CPI (June)	Leading Indicators (June)
GDP (Q1 Final)
International trade
Industrial Production (June)
Housing Starts (June)

The Earnings Calendar is as busy as it can get. Some of the names I’ll be watching:

Monday

• Altera (ALTR) - Xilinx (XLNX) filed an awful report. Can Altera do any better? Consensus is $0.19 EPS on sales of $314 million.
• Hexcel (HXL) - This Small Cap Watch List member was seeing rising estimates until last month, when they were cut from $0.20 to the current $0.17.
• Steel Dynamics (STLD) - The Mid Cap Watch List member is expected to earn $1.04 on sales of $948 million.
• Texas Instruments (TXN) - expected to earn $0.42 on $3.45 billion in sales.

Tuesday

• CH Robinson (CHRW) - estimates have been rising and now stand at $0.47, but Landstar (LSTR) disappointed.
• CDW Corporation (CDWC) - stellar monthly sales reports have kept estimates rising. They now stand at $0.97.
• EMC Corporation (EMC) - The big news is still the VMWare IPO, but it is also a decent look at enterprise tech spend.
• Laboratory Corporation of America (LH) - The Mid Cap and Large Cap Watch List member has been seeing positive earnings revisions and is now expected to earn $1.09 on $1.03 billion in revenue.
• Lexmark (LXK) preannounced and will probably offer poor guidance.
• Linear Technology (LLTC) - expected to earn $0.35 on $267 million in sales.
• Norsk Hydro (NHY) - The Large Cap Watch List member has no analyst coverage right now.
• Plantronics (PLT) - my covered call position is now being cashed out so I’ve no skin in this one. But it is often volatile.
• United Parcel Services (UPS) is a great read on the health of the economy. Expectations are $1.03 on $12.23 billion in revenue.

Wednesday

• Arkansas Best (ABFS) - after Landstar’s (LSTR) weak quarter I’m expecting a poor showing. Estimates have come down to $0.67, but may not have come down enough.
• Colgate Palmolive (CL) - Large Cap Watch List member unlikely to surprise much. Consensus is $0.83 on $3.31 billion.
• Corning (GLW) - is LCD supply/demand back in balance?
• Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX) -Another Large Cap Watch List member with dramatic positive earnings revisions, now standing at $2.71.
• Graco (GGG) is another Large Cap Watch List member. Estimates have been coming down and are now at $0.61.
• MEMC Electronic Materials (WFR) - Is polysilicon supply catching up to demand for this Large Cap Watch List member?
• Xerox (XRX) - can they make the numbers without asking investors to ignore a bunch of stuff? I don’t doubt they will earn $0.27 as expected but wonder how they’ll get there.

Thursday

• Federated Investors (FII) is on the Large Cap Watch List and expected to earn $0.54.
• Ingram Micro (IM) is on the Small Cap Watch List and expected to earn $0.36.
• KLA-Tencor (KLAC) - I know the semiconductor equipment fundamentals stink. I want to know how much and whether it is priced in.
• NII Holdings (NIHD) is on the Large Cap Watch List and expected to earn $0.49.
• Western Digital (WDC) is on the Large Cap Watch List and expected to earn $0.36.

Disclosure: author has a short position in SMH put options at time of publication.

Comments

[rdial54]

I will keep my EMC stock and ride the wave.

[StreetSweeper]

Although I am sick to death of hearing about AAPLs iPhone, it has had a huge impact on the NASDAQ in recent weeks, helping it keep its head above the subprime waters. Suppliers to iPhone production have also benefited from its successful launch. I am curious as to why you would not monitor Apple's earnings report Wednesday after hours? A bad report (although very unlikely) would have a profound effect on the stock and possibly others in the NASDAQ. XRX, WDC. and some of the others you mentioned are mere sideshows in comparison.

[WilliamTrent]

In part the stocks I am watching are based on whether they are on my watch list or have discussed them in the past. As you say, Apple is discussed to death and the incremental value of my own contribution would probably be minimal. While some will surely disagree, I feel I can add more value to the discussion of the others listed.

[StreetSweeper]

Yet, you did discuss the earning report afterall, didn't you? I guess it was just to juicy of a story, huh?

[WilliamTrent]

Yep. Hopefully the one extra voice added to the discussion. If not, I guess worst case is my incremental hot air was insignificant in the scheme of things.

[StreetSweeper]

Out of many voices comes one helluva story and no voice is insignificant. Remember that little butterfly in the Amazon helping cause the storms in Kansas? We're all part of the grand scheme of things to one extent or another.

Unfortunately the earnings were up but the stock went down...go figure.

[WilliamTrent]

Not many stocks rising last week... Yesterday's end of day rally was a wild one, but the volume came in selling at the close.