This week will again be predominantly all about earnings. The highlights of the second week of the second-quarter reporting season include the oil majors, telecom carriers and media giants. Some of the more notable companies reporting are: ConocoPhillips (COP) ; Amgen, Inc. (AMGN) ; Honeywell International (HON) ; Manitowoc CO. Inc. (MTW) ; Verizon (VZ) ; Textron Inc. (TXT) ; The McGraw Hill Companies (MHP) ; Valero Energy Corp. (VLO) ; Viacom (VIA) ; General Dynamics (GD) ; Moody’s Corporation (MCO) ; Sprint Nextel (S) ; Time Warner Cable (TWC) ; Time Warner (TWX), Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM) ; MasterCard (MA) ; Visa (NYSE:V) ; Motorola (MOT) ; The Dow Chemical Company (DOW), etc.
This new round of reporting finds the S&P 500 with a 45% gain above its March lows. A handful of financial reports in the previous week helped push the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and tech-heavy Naz Composite Index higher. Dow Jones topped 9K for the first time in seven months thanks to better-than-expected quarterly results from a cross-section of co.’s including Ebay (EBAY), Ford (F) and AT&T Inc. (T). The big question is whether the market can sustain its upward momentum. Industry insiders, as is always the case, all have a variety of views ranging from embryonic bull market hypothesis to major averages poised to retest March lows. Only time will tell who’s right and who’s wrong. In the meantime, on the economic front this week we will get an update on consumer confidence and durable goods orders. S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index will report on the health of the housing market. But the most important data release this week will be US gross domestic product growth for the second quarter, released on Friday. Consensus forecasts point to an annualized fall of 1.5%, the fourth consecutive period of falling output.
