Dados e resultados para a semana nos EUA: Earnings blowout, week 2

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Earnings blowout, week 2

Nearly 30 percent of the S&P 500 reports quarterly earnings this week. Get ready.

July 24, 2005: 8:51 AM EDT
By Alexandra Twin, CNN/Money Staff Writer

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Are you ready for another one?

The two week earnings blowout continues this week with reports due from around 1000 companies, nearly 150 of them S&P 500 companies.

"Just under 30 percent of the S&P 500 report results this week," noted Michael Sheldon, chief market strategist at Spencer Clarke. "Among the different industry groups, we'll get a heavy dose of economically sensitive names, including several from the oil and gas, rail, coal and steel industries."

That marks a shift from the first big batch of earnings reports this past week.

Week one of the onslaught brought reports from 17 Dow components, including IBM, 3M, Microsoft and General Motors. A number of other marquee name tech companies reported results as well, including search engines Yahoo! and Google.

This week the focus turns more to the nitty gritty of the earnings -- oil service companies, mining companies and chemical producers dominate the list of S&P 500 corporations due to report. Two of the four Dow components due to report fall into those same categories -- chemical producer DuPont and oil behemoth Exxon Mobil.

"People want to put their money in companies with strong earnings, and many of these companies are expected to deliver that," said Paul Mendelsohn, chief investment strategist at Windham Financial Services.

Dow 30 company American Express reports next week, too. It joins Legg mason and a few other financial companies that are due to report. Dow stocks Boeing and Verizon are on tap as well. Several healthcare makers are due also. (For a look at next week's key earnings, click here.)

Not just about earnings
In between sorting through the myriad earnings reports, investors have plenty of other things to focus on as well.

Stocks were extremely volatile last week as investors kept an eye on continued violence in London and a rebound in oil prices, as well as hints from the Federal Reserve about the pace of interest rates. All those issues will remain in the picture this week, too.

A slew of economic reads are also on tap.

July reports on consumer confidence and manufacturing are due, as are June reads on new and existing home sale. (For a detailed look at these and other key economic reports, click here.)

The release of the Federal Reserve's "beige book" on Wednesday, while dated, will be relevant. The survey of the central bank's 12 districts is used in making the decision about short-term rates at the August policy-setting meeting. The fed funds rate, an overnight bank lending rate, currently stands at 3.25 percent.

Last week, Fed chairman Alan Greenspan, in his two-day address to Congress, made it clear that the central bank will continue to raise rates at a 'measured' pace. This would seem to indicate that the economic recovery is chugging along nicely -- next week's earnings reports, and the "beige book" should reflect that.

The week ahead should be positive for stocks, Mendelsohn said, particularly early in the week, amid the continued momentum from Friday. Investors on Friday shook off worries about Google and Microsoft's earnings forecast to push stocks higher by the close.

However, with the Nasdaq just below its 2005 all-time closing high and the S&P 500 near a four-year high, there may be some pressure -- from a technical standpoint -- for investors to sell, Mendelsohn added.

The major gauges have risen for four weeks in a row now.

"You're going to continue to see this battle between bulls and bears next week," he said. "The bulls are looking at the stronger earnings and stronger economic reports and wanting to act -- and the bears are looking at the technical levels and thinking stocks are due for a pullback."

Next week's big earnings

Monday: American Express is expected to have earned 78 cents per share, according to a consensus of analysts surveyed by Reuters, versus 68 cents a year ago; Texas Instruments is expected to have earned 29 cents per share, versus 25 cents a year ago.


Tuesday: DuPont is expected to have earned 96 cents per share, versus 80 cents a year ago; Verizon Communications is expected to have earned 64 cents per share, unchanged from a year ago; Amazon.com is expected to report results of 14 cents per share, down from 18 cents a year ago; Sun Microsystems is expected to have earned a penny a share versus a loss of a nickel a year ago.


Wednesday: Boeing is expected to have earned 61 cents per share, up from 50 cents a year ago; Newmont Mining is expected to have earned 17 cents per share, down from 19 cents a year ago; Time Warner (CNN/Money's parent) is expected to have earned around 19 cents per share, little changed from a year ago.


Thursday: Bristol-Myers is expected to have earned 36 cents per share, versus 45 cents a year ago; Dow Chemical is expected to have earned $1.22 per share, up from 72 cents a year ago; Exxon Mobil is expected to have earned $1.21 per share, up from 88 cents a year ago.

Key events in the week ahead

June existing home sales, due Monday, are expected to have held steady at a 7.13 million unit annual rate, unchanged from May, according to a consensus of economists surveyed by Briefing.com. New home sales, due Wednesday, are expected to have risen to a 1.300 million unit annual rate in the month from a 1.298 million unit annual rate in May.


The July Consumer Confidence read, due Tuesday, is expected to show a rise to 106.2 from 105.8 in June.


Durable goods orders, on tap for Wednesday, are expected to have fallen 1 percent in June after rising 5.5 percent in May, according to forecasts.


Gross domestic product growth in the second quarter, due Friday, is expected to be revised down to a 3.5 percent annualized rate from a 3.8 percent annualized rate.


The revised read on consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan, due Friday, is expected to come in at 96.5 in July, unchanged from the earlier read.


The Chicago PMI, a regional read on manufacturing, is also due Friday, and is expected to have risen to 55.0 in July from 53.6 in June.