The Fool's Look Ahead

Monday
It's hard to shake Adobe (NYSE: ADBE), because the publishing-software specialist is a pivotal part of the online experience. Whether we're consuming PDF documents, Photoshopped images, or Flash-formatted video clips, Adobe is everywhere -- including the earnings stage on Monday.

Wall Street expects Adobe to grow its profits by 45% to $0.48 a share for the quarter. The trend is the software star's friend. It has beaten analyst estimates in 22 of the past 23 quarters.

Tuesday
Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) talks tech on Tuesday. I recently tapped the home-electronics giant as one of the top retailer stocks to buy for 2008, so you know that I'll be watching its report closely. With competitors like CompUSA fading away, the future should be pretty bright for the superstore chain. Tune in to the company's conference call to see how things are going as we race towards the end of the 2007 holiday shopping season.

Another interesting quarterly report on Tuesday should come from Take-Two Interactive (Nasdaq: TTWO). When the video game software maker bumped its Grand Theft Auto IV release to next year, it supposedly snuffed its fortunes for 2007. However, the company has a sleeper hit in BioShock, and Manhunt 2 is selling briskly.

Wednesday
If office furniture is your thing, Wednesday's the day you've been waiting for. Herman Miller (Nasdaq: MLHR) and Steelcase (Nasdaq: SCS) will both step up the plate with their latest quarterly reports. Investors expect earnings at both companies to inch upward during the period. If that proves true, it's great to know that companies are confident enough about their future to spend more in office accessories -- a great proxy for the economy, when you think about it. 

Thursday
Just as its fleet of delivery specialists are racing around the planet to deliver presents on time, FedEx (NYSE: FDX) will hit the brakes long enough to discuss its fiscal second-quarter results on Thursday. Investors are braced for a bottom-line dip. They probably wouldn't mind if FedEx delivered something else.

Friday
If you want to put Best Buy's report in an appropriate perspective, wait until Friday, when Circuit City (NYSE: CC) follows suit. Circuit City has been suffering this year, and Wall Street expects a wider quarterly loss out of the consumer electronics retailer. Is the plan to swap out the red uniforms for blue, and change its name to "Second-Best Buy"? Probably not, but let's tune in to see whether the company has a turnaround plan in place.

Until next week, I remain,
Rick Munarriz