The new earnings season doesn't kick off until Alcoa (AA) reports its first-quarter results on April 11, but a few stragglers are still reporting their earnings for the previous quarter this week. The most prominent earnings reports on tap are Wednesday's results from Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) and from Monsanto (MON). Here's what analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect to see.

Bed Bath & Beyond

During its fiscal fourth quarter, the nation's largest domestics retailer opened new stores and its CEO sold shares. Analysts anticipate that the New Jersey-based company will report per-share earnings of 97 cents, an increase of 11.3% from the same quarter of last year. The company also is expected to post revenue of $2.4 billion for the three months that ended in February, a 6.3% rise from a year earlier.

NASDAQ OMX (NDAQ), Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) offered $42.50 per share to acquire NYSE Euronext (NYX). April and June call option implied volatility is at 22; below its 26-week average of 32 according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Pier 1 Imports (PIR) April put option implied volatility is at 58, June is at 54; near its 26-week average of 56 according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement into the expected release of Q4 results on April 7.

Options Update is by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Analyst Upgrades

• NYSE Euronex (NYX) to conviction buy from neutral at Goldman.
• General Dynamics (GD) to buy from hold at Citigroup.
• Deere (DE), Parker-Hannifin (PH) and ExlService (EXLS) to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• Aflac (AFL) to outperform from market perform at FBR Capital.
• Wynn Resorts (WYNN) to buy from neutral at Janney Capital.
• Amdocs (DOX) to buy from neutral at UBS.
• Juniper (JNPR) to buy from hold at ThinkEquity.
• Rudolph Tech (RTEC) and KLA-Tencor (KLAC) to perform from underperform at Oppenheimer.
• Hershey (HSY) and Pinnacle Entertainment (PNK) to outperform from market perform at Wells Fargo.
• Spirit AeroSystems (SPR) to equal weight from underweight at Morgan Stanley.
• Micron (MU) to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage on BloggingStocks:

• Alcoa Inc. (AA) received an analyst's downgrade ahead of its earnings report due to pricing pressures in 2011.
• American Eagle Outfitters Inc. (AEO) disappointing earnings guidance offset sales numbers to depress shares.
• Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) shares hit a new 52-week high after it reported strong Q4 results and offered guidance.
• Constellation Brands Inc. (STZ) posted a narrower net loss for Q4 and offered lower-than-expected guidance.

Shares of home furnishings retailer Pier 1 Imports (PIR) traded sharply higher after the release of its fourth quarter earnings report. Shares gained over 16% and rose to a new 52-week high.

As we noted in our earnings preview, analysts were expecting to see the company post earnings of $0.32 per share. Excluding one time items, the company reported earnings in-line analyst estimates, and higher than the $0.29 that the company had forecast back in March.

Home furnishings retailer Pier 1 Imports (PIR) will be reporting its fourth quarter earnings tomorrow before the market opens, and Wall Street is expecting to see the company post its second straight quarterly profit.

Headed into tomorrow's earnings report, analysts have forecast $0.32 per share. During the same period last year the company had a reported loss of $0.33 per share.

The so-called cruelest month has begun. And this coming week's economic calendar for the U.S. starts off with the ISM nonmanufacturer's survey results for April and NAR's pending home sales for February on Monday morning. This glimpse at the service and housing sectors will be followed by March's consumer credit numbers Monday afternoon. Then things are pretty quiet until Friday's release of factory orders and wholesale trade numbers for February.

Between the Monday and Friday economic numbers will come the release on Tuesday of the minutes of the March 16 FOMC meeting, a record of the Fed's most recent thinking on monetary policy.

Williams-Sonoma (WSM), a retailer of high-end merchandise whose concepts include Pottery Barn and West Elm, reported results for the fourth quarter earlier today. If you were trading this name ahead of the numbers, you made out, because the market gave this stock a nice bid on the news.

On an adjusted basis, net income came in at 86 cents per share; the company made 31 cents per share in the comparable period on the same basis. According to our preview, the bottom line beat estimates by twelve pennies. Total sales revenue increased 8%. Same-store sales jumped a very attractive 7.6%; the metric was down double-digits last time around.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage on BloggingStocks:

• Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.A) announced improved results year over year, with book value up nearly 20%.
• BJ's Wholesale Club Inc. (BJ) Q4 earnings were in line with expectations but guidance for the year fell short.
• Cbeyond Inc. (CBEY) received an analyst's downgrade and lowered price target following its Q4 results.
• Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST) strong Q2 results fell short of analysts' estimates and shares declined.
• Dress Barn Inc. (DBRN) said it swung to a profit in Q2 and same-store sales increased, and it raised its outlook.

We had a lot of big names trading up to new 52 week highs again today. The overall markets were pretty flat, with the DOW closing the day down 0.14%, the NASDAQ closing the day's trading up 0.04%, and the S&P ending the day a bit lower to finish today's trading down 0.28%.

Here are a few of the names that moved higher during the day to set new 52 week highs.

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.

Stocks opened up on the day and stayed up on the day, despite closing well off of the highs. We had three key economic reports hit at once as the Institute for Supply Management gave the June ISM Manufacturing data, while we saw pending home sales data and new construction spending data mixed for May. These actually ended up being contradictory numbers, and then the oil inventories did nothing to support higher oil prices.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 8,504.06 +57.06 (0.68%)
S&P 500 923.33 +4.01 (0.44%)
Nasdaq 1,845.72 +10.68 (0.58%)

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades

Pier 1 Imports (NYSE: PIR) hit the rock bottom price of 10 cents per share in early March as the market bottomed.

Now two months later, PIR trades around $2.00 per share. In early May, the stock gained more than 10% as it regained compliance with the New York Stock Exchange.

I can appreciate the enthusiasm for PIR and its turnaround play, but there is still a lot of risk here.

While consumer confidence might have soared in April, the move seems to be in response to a two-month surge in stocks versus any real strength on the home front.

The jobs market is still poor with stagnant or declining wages. Corporations are still in lay-off mode and oil prices are marching ever higher. In other words, there are still hurdles to overcome before the "all clear" can be given.

I don't mean to rain on the parade of recovery, but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves.

A new earnings reporting season kicks off this coming week with the quarterly report from Alcoa, the first Dow Jones industrial to report. But investors looking for early signs about the first quarter will be disappointed in what they see from the aluminum producer, assuming that analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are neither too optimistic or too pessimistic about those results.