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The week in preview: Expectations as the earnings crunch begins

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As the second quarter earnings crunch begins in earnest this week, the bear market has investors jittery and prognosticators spinning out dire warnings. In the wake of mixed results from Alcoa (NYSE: AA) and General Electric (NYSE: GE) kicking things off last week, here's a look at what Wall Street is expecting from many of the companies scheduled to report this coming week.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial are expecting the following companies to report a rise in earnings when compared to the same period of the previous year.

  • Nucor Corp. (NYSE: NUE): $1.80 EPS (36.6%) on sales of $6.4 billion (+53.0%)
  • Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG): $4.74 EPS (24.9%) on sales of $3.9 billion (+41.6%)
  • Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK): 56 cents EPS (23.2%) on sales of $19.9 billion (+17.8%)
  • CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX): 90 cents EPS (21.1%) on sales of $2.9 billion (+12.8%)
  • Altera Corp. (NASDAQ: ALTR): 27 cents EPS (18.5%) on sales of $346.7 million (+8.4%)
  • IBM (NYSE: IBM): $1.82 EPS (+17.6%) on sales of $25.9 billion (+9.0%)
  • eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY): 41 cents EPS (17.1%) on sales of $2.2 billion (+18.0%)
  • W.W. Grainger Inc. (NYSE: GWW): $1.46 EPS (17.1%) on sales of $1.7 billion (+8.0%)
  • Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT): 47 cents EPS (17.0%) on sales of $15.7 billion (+17.0%)
  • Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON): 94 cents EPS (17.0%) on sales of $9.2 billion (+7.9%)

Analysts are looking for a number of the big financials reporting next week to post declines in earnings, but I've focused on those companies in a separate post (see Financials expected to post earnings declines, losses this week). The companies below are also expected to post declines in profit.

Continental Airlines Inc. (NYSE: CAL) is expected to swing to a loss of 52 cents (from $2.10 EPS last year) on $4.1 billion (+9.3%). And Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD) is expected to narrow its loss to 52 cents per share (from 95 cents per share last year) on sales of $1.5 billion (+5.2%).

With expectations listed out this way Wall Street seems pretty optimistic about earnings (other than for financial companies; see Financials expected to post earnings declines, losses this week). But we'll see this week whether the companies above can live up to these expectations. Do you think they will?

Other economic data coming out next week include:

  • Producer price index (June 2008), Tuesday, 8:30 a.m. ET
  • Business inventories (May 2008), Tuesday, 10:00 a.m. ET
  • Consumer price index (June 2008), Wednesday, 8:30 a.m. ET
  • NAHB housing market index (July 2008), Wednesday, 1:00 p.m. ET
  • Housing starts (June 2008), Thursday, 8:30 a.m. ET

See also Market highlights for next week: Google, Microsoft reporting earnings

Visit AOL Money & Finance for more earnings coverage.

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Last updated: July 04, 2009: 04:40 AM

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