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.

"Walgreen (WAG) a holding on our recommended buy list, reported a 10% increase in its fiscal second-quarter profit," notes Geoffrey Seiler.

The editor of BullMarket.com explains, "Although investors hammered the stock, we think the company delivered solid sales growth. We continue to believe the best is yet to come for Walgreen, with several notable catalysts in the wings.

The shares of upscale retailer Williams-Sonoma (WSM), first discussed here on December 14, 2009, at a price of $22.00, continue to push toward $40 in early 2011. If you haven't already, now may be a good time to consider taking some profits if you're in near $22 with WSM.

However, other investors who can tolerate the risk can maintain their full position, as a push beyond $45 by WSM in 2011 would not be a stretch, but the sell/stop loss has been raised to $28 from $22 to lock-in some profits.

This post is one in a series in which more than 60 newsletter advisors share their Top Stock Picks for 2011. This special report is courtesy of TheStockAdvisors.com.

"A financial crisis, severe recession, a supposedly 'tapped out' U.S. consumer -- none of it has been enough to derail Aeropostale (ARO), the New York City-based teen clothing retailer," says John Reese.

The editor of Validea Hot List Newsletter explains, "While other companies have struggled to survive in the past few years, the mall-based firm upped both earnings and sales in 2007, 2008, and 2009, and it's on track to do so again in 2010.

"Our recommendation for Dollar Tree (DLTR) is based on the investment strategy of growth and value investor James P. O'Shaughnessy," says John Reese.

The editor of Validea explains, "In fact, the stock scores a 100% rating on our screening model used to select stocks for our O'Shaughnessy-based model portfolio.

Reese continues, "Dollar Tree is an operator of discount variety stores offering merchandise at the fixed price of one dollar.

"Our recommendations center on a collection of five stocks that we believe, as a group, will outperform the market this month; our portfolio is beating the S&P 500 by more than 58% since its inception in 2000," notes David Fried.

The editor of The Buyback Letter explains, "High-end accessories retailer, Coach (COH), is a new addition to this portfolio.

"The company is a leading American marketer of fine accessories and gifts for women and men. Even in a struggling economy, apparently luxury sells, as long as you're stocking the right premium products.

GameStop (GME), which has jumped in price after announcing a stock buyback, is a new recommendation from John Reese, whose portfolio holds are based on screens developed to reflect the investment strategies of some of the stock's markets most successful investors.

The editor of Validea explains, "This recommendation is based on the P/E/ Growth Investor strategy of Peter Lynch.

"GameStop is a retailer of video game products and personal computer (PC) entertainment software. The company sells new and used video game hardware, video game software and accessories, as well as PC entertainment software, and related accessories and other merchandise.

"At some point, the bearish outlook on consumer spending will become a crowded trade, as too much focus on risk threatens to blind one to opportunities that the ongoing pessimism and market turmoil have created," says John Buckingham.

The value investor and editor of The Prudent Speculator explains, "While we are not clamoring to add new names with general retail exposure, the receding tide has brought low all boats, including Tiffany & Co. (TIF), a company with a ubiquitous worldwide brand.

"In our view, it looks like China could present some excellent opportunities for us as we move through the summer. Indeed, we believe China's unpegging of its currency will help its manufacturing base," says Richard Schmidt.

The editor of Stellar Stock Alert explains, "And a potentially stronger retail market in the U.S. combined with a stronger manufacturing base in China is a recipe for success. One company that's positioned to take advantage of both trends is retail apparel firm Lululemon Athletica (LULU).

"The company knows how to play both sides of the ocean. Over 65% of its products are manufactured in China. Meanwhile, it has 124 company-owned and franchised athletic apparel stores in the U.S. and Canada .

"The stock market is now below the midpoint of fair valuation, a fact that leads us to believe there is further upside for the market ahead," says J. Royden Ward, who specializes in uncovering value-oriented investments.

The editor of Cabot Benjamin Graham Value Letter explains, "Our goal is to identify value and one such value, in our view, is Wal-Mart Stores (WMT), the world's largest retailer, employing more than two million workers in more than 7,500 stores.

In very contrarian fashion, Bernie Schaeffer has used the market pullback to initiate two positions in retail stocks.

The editor of Schaeffer's Research -- who uses a combination of technical, fundamental and sentiment-based metrics to select his trading positions -- has bought shares of Sears Holdings (SHLD) and Williams-Sonoma (WSM).

Schaeffer explains, "I initiated a long position in Sears Holdings. Price action for SHLD has been strong, with the equity up 13 percent year-to-date and 75 percent in the past 52 weeks.

"Our latest pick, MercadoLibre (MELI), takes us to Argentina, not a country known for its stable political climate," says international specialist Nicholas Vardy.

The editof of The Global Bull Market Alert explains, "But MercadoLibre is more of a bet on e-commerce and on Latin America as a whole, rather than on Argentina in particular. It's best to think of MercadoLibre as the "eBay of Latin America."

On April 26, the long anticipated Senate climate bill is slated for its debut. Climate change talking points aside, how powerful a piece of legislation will this bill turn out to be for investors, and what could be its effects on manufacturing, retail and energy stocks?

For the sake of discussion, let's just assume that the bill will pass and become law. The first thing to understand is that it's not much more than an act of taxation. That new tax will be levied against businesses large and small via carbon offsets. They'll be showing up on balance sheets everywhere. Granted, we all know that businesses hand their tax bills down line to the consumers, but for large corporations and conglomerates, it's certain that the documentation and accounting will be more than a little distracting. Of course some business giants will be able to simply buy their way out from under the mess.

"If a correction occurs, I expect it to be of the garden-variety type, perhaps -5% to -7%; and, of course, if you're going to stay long in this market, the better stocks to own are those that go up in a down market ," suggests trading specialist Mike Turner.

The editor of Mastering the Markets explains, 'As such, I had my proprietary systems focus on the best scoring stocks that were moving higher in price while the market fell on Friday. My top scoring stock for this test is GameStop (GME).

"Children's clothing retailer Gymboree (GYMB), a new holding on our Recommended List, just recently reported a solid fiscal fourth quarter," reports Geoffrey Seiler.

The editor of BullMarket.com explains, "Better yet, the company offered fiscal Q1 guidance that exceeded Wall Street's outlook and separately announced a franchise deal with a Middle Eastern-based company to launch the Gymboree brand in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and other states in the region over the next five years."