Alcoa (AA), Intel (INTC) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) will kick off a new earnings season this week when they report their results for the fourth quarter of 2010. Here's a quick look at what analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect to see, followed by a glance at what's coming up on the economic calendar.

Alcoa

During its fourth quarter, Alcoa saw increased demand in emerging markets, sold surplus properties, and shared revenue targets with investors. Analysts forecast that earnings for the period will come to 19 cents per share, up from just a penny per share in the same quarter of last year. The New York-based aluminum producer also is expected to post revenue of $5.7 billion for the three months that ended in December, which is 4.5% more than a year earlier.

Continue reading Week in Preview: Alcoa, Intel, JPMorgan Kick Off New Earnings Season

Week in Preview: Alcoa, Intel, JPMorgan Kick Off New Earnings Season originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 09 Jan 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Black Friday has come and gone and the holiday shopping season is off and running. In addition to keeping on eye on how retailers are doing, there will be plenty of other economic data for analysts and investors to peruse on this week.

• Monday: Chicago Fed's Midwest Manufacturing Index
• Tuesday: Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index, Chicago Purchasing Managers Index, S&P/Case-Schiller Home Price Index for Q3, Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index

Continue reading Week in Preview: Unemployment Rate, Fed's Beige Book, Canadian Banks

Week in Preview: Unemployment Rate, Fed's Beige Book, Canadian Banks originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 28 Nov 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Last week, the Fed's Beige Book report confirmed that the economy continues to grow, but at a slower pace than in previous periods. This week will bring plenty of economic data to either support or contrast with the Fed's findings.

• Monday: Federal government budget balance for August
• Tuesday: Business inventory numbers from July, TIPP Economic Optimism Index for September, retail sales data from August
• Wednesday: Industrial production in August, Empire State Manufacturing Survey for September, Import Price Index for August
• Thursday: Producer Price Index for August, Philly Fed Survey for September, the Current Account Balance in the second quarter, jobless claims for last week
• Friday: preliminary University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index, Consumer Price Index for August, real earnings data for August

Continue reading The Week in Preview: FedEx, Best Buy, Oracle and Lots of Economic Data

The Week in Preview: FedEx, Best Buy, Oracle and Lots of Economic Data originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 12 Sep 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Federal Reserve's Beige Book is a look back at the condition of the economy during the previous few months. The most recent report, issued Wednesday, quotes the Fed as saying the economy has shown widespread signs" of slowing over the recent weeks.

The Fed takes anecdotal reports from the 12 Federal Districts and highlights key points. Here are some of these data:

Continue reading Fed's Beige Book: Widespread Signs of Slowing

Fed's Beige Book: Widespread Signs of Slowing originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Federal Reserve's next Beige Book report is scheduled to be released this week. This report is a compilation of anecdotal information on current economic conditions from each of the 12 Federal Reserve Bank districts, and it is released eight times a year. The data comes from interviews with business contacts, economists, market experts, and other sources. While the June report showed modest growth across the districts, the July report showed that the economic recovery had slowed, even stalled in some districts.

Other economic data due out this holiday-shortened week include:

Continue reading The Week in Preview: Beige Book, Smithfield Foods, Talbots, Men's Wearhouse

The Week in Preview: Beige Book, Smithfield Foods, Talbots, Men's Wearhouse originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 05 Sep 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Ray of Light: Risk Appetite Has Increased

Ray of Light: Risk Appetite Has Increased originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The earnings crunch rolls on this coming week, and the analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are looking for strong quarterly results from the likes of Avon (AVP), Coinstar (CSTR), Corning (GLW), DuPont (DD), MetLife (MET), Norfolk Southern (NSC), Northrop Grumman (NOC), Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) and many others. In fact, Broadcom (BRCM), Chevron (CVX) and Southwest Airlines (LUV) are expected to have doubled their second-quarter earnings per share compared to a year ago.

The three months that ended in June saw Southwest Airlines celebrate the 39th anniversary of its founding, and it also declared a quarterly dividend. Analysts expect the Dallas-based no-frills carrier to report that second-quarter earnings came to 27 cents a share, a 70.4% rise from a year earlier. Revenue for the period is expected to have grown 20.4% to $3.2 billion. So far, analysts predict similar earnings and revenue numbers for the third quarter. But earnings results were better than expected in the past four quarters, beating consensus estimates by as much as 47%.

Continue reading The Week in Preview: High Expectations for Southwest, Chevron, Broadcom

The Week in Preview: High Expectations for Southwest, Chevron, Broadcom originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 25 Jul 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Federal Reserve's next Beige Book report is scheduled to be released this week. This report is a compilation of anecdotal information on current economic conditions from each of the 12 Federal Reserve Bank districts, and it is released eight times a year. The data comes from interviews with business contacts, economists, market experts, and other sources. The June report is expected to show strengthening signs of expansion, though results could be mixed across the 12 districts.

Economic data due out this week include:

Continue reading The Week in Preview: Beige Book, Federal Budget, Retail Sales

The Week in Preview: Beige Book, Federal Budget, Retail Sales originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 06 Jun 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Closing Bell: Bears Losing Arguments Faster & Faster (MOS, INTC, JPM, AA)

Closing Bell: Bears Losing Arguments Faster & Faster (MOS, INTC, JPM, AA) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 14 Apr 2010 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Federal Reserve's next Beige Book report is scheduled to be released this week. This report is a compilation of anecdotal information on current economic conditions from each of the 12 Federal Reserve Bank districts, and it is released eight times a year. The data comes from interviews with business contacts, economists, market experts, and other sources. The previous report, released in January, showed some improvement in most districts and growth in consumer spending over the holiday period, though unemployment remained high. The December report showed modest improvement in eight of the districts.

Retailers were in the earnings spotlight last week and for the most part made a strong showing of it. Even as the earnings season winds down, some more retailers are scheduled to release quarterly results this week.

Continue reading The Week in Preview: Fed's Beige Book, More Retail Earnings and Canadian Banks

The Week in Preview: Fed's Beige Book, More Retail Earnings and Canadian Banks originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 28 Feb 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Fed's Beige Book summarizes economic activity compiled from data obtained from the 12 Federal Reserve districts.

Here are some notes from the Beige Book:

• Most districts reported that consumer spending was up a bit during the recent holiday season, but still below the 2007 level.
• Retailers in Philadelphia and San Francisco noted small gains, but they didn't amount
• to much.

Continue reading Fed's Beige Book Cites Some Economic Improvement

Fed's Beige Book Cites Some Economic Improvement originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Closing Bell: Low Rates and Easy Finance Policy to Stay for Stocks (KFT, JPM, GOOG, BIDU, EK, LLTC, NBG, MRNA, NBG)

Closing Bell: Low Rates and Easy Finance Policy to Stay for Stocks (KFT, JPM, GOOG, BIDU, EK, LLTC, NBG, MRNA, NBG) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Federal Reserve's first Beige Book report of the year is due out this week. The report is a compilation of anecdotal information on current economic conditions from each of the 12 Federal Reserve Bank districts. The data comes from interviews with business contacts, economists, market experts, and other sources. The previous report, released in December, showed modest improvement in eight of the districts, while the October report confirmed that the economy was stabilizing after earlier declines.

Continue reading The Week in Preview: Fed's Beige Book; Alcoa, JPMorgan and Intel Earnings

The Week in Preview: Fed's Beige Book; Alcoa, JPMorgan and Intel Earnings originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 10 Jan 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Fed's Beige Book is a report card on the status of the US economy.

This month's report says that our economy is still weak, but improving modestly. There is little upward pressure on wages and finished goods. Eight of the 12 regions reported some improvement. Philadelphia, Cleveland, Richmond and Atlanta showed little change.

Continue reading Fed's Beige Book reports a modest improvement in the economy

Fed's Beige Book reports a modest improvement in the economy originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

So this earnings season hasn't turned out as bad as some had feared. In fact, we've seen some pretty stellar results from the likes of Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), and Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO).

Then there was the Fed's Beige Book report, which suggested that the U.S. economy had stabilized -- and even improved a bit in some sectors.

Well, the earnings crunch rolls on this coming week leading up to Halloween. Do analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect more treats or tricks from coming quarterly reports?

Continue reading The week in preview: Trick or treat earnings?

The week in preview: Trick or treat earnings? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 25 Oct 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

What is the Beige Book and what does it contain? The US Federal Reserve keeps anecdotal reports on the economy in what is called the "Beige Book." Here are some notes on the key topics:

• There was some improvement in two of the hardest hit areas -- residential real estate and manufacturing.
• Gains in economic activity generally outnumbered declines.
• "Grim" was how the Fed described commercial real estate, "with conditions described as either weak or deteriorating across all districts." Regional banks said they did not see improvement in commercial real estate going forward into 2010.

Continue reading Beige Book: US economic conditions have stabilized or improved modestly

Beige Book: US economic conditions have stabilized or improved modestly originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Before the bell: Investors cautious amid earnings bonanza

Before the bell: Investors cautious amid earnings bonanza originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Memphis-based package delivery giant FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) is generally seen as an indicator of the state of commerce in the U.S. Last week, not only did the Fed's Beige Book report suggest that the economy had stabilized over the summer, with signs of recovery in some districts, But FedEx also boosted its earnings guidance due to stronger-than-expected volume in its international priority-delivery service. So a question going in to FedEx's fiscal first-quarter report this week is whether the company is still a bellwether.

For the three months that ended in August, when FedEx opened distribution hubs in Chicago and Toledo and declared a quarterly dividend, analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are looking for it to report that earnings fell 60.2% from a year ago to $0.49 per share. That's also down 23.4% from the previous quarter, as well as less than the recently updated outlook. First quarter revenue is expected to be down 18.3% from a year ago to $8.2 billion.

Continue reading The week in preview: Is FedEx still a bellwether?

The week in preview: Is FedEx still a bellwether? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 13 Sep 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Closing Bell: The never ending rally (ABX, GE, PALM, VVUS)

Closing Bell: The never ending rally (ABX, GE, PALM, VVUS) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Investors and analysts may be wondering whether the market rally is really over, and whether this signals more trouble ahead for the economy. Well, the Federal Reserve is scheduled to release its next Beige Book report of economic conditions on Wednesday, offering a glimpse of where things stand. The Beige Book report in July suggested that, in some of the 12 Fed districts, the economy appeared to be stabilizing, suggesting that the recession may have reached its bottom, but offering little sign of a recovery. Retail activity remained weak and employment numbers were not good. Yet the minutes of the FOMC August meeting seemed a bit more optimistic about the economy.

In addition to the Beige Book report, the TIPP Economic Optimism Index is scheduled to be released Tuesday, and the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index comes out Friday. So by the end of the week, we could have a good gauge of the mood about the U.S. economy.

Continue reading The week in preview: It's Beige Book time again

The week in preview: It's Beige Book time again originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 06 Sep 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.