The Fool's Look Ahead

By Rick Aristotle Munarriz | More Articles
December 27, 2008 | Comments (3)

Monday
The abridged holiday trading week kicks off with only a handful of companies -- like egg specialist Cal-Maine Foods (Nasdaq: CALM ) and strip club operator Rick's Cabaret (Nasdaq: RICK ) -- reporting quarterly results on Monday.

Just one of the two companies is expected to post improved profitability. Can you guess which one? It's not the food stock, my defensive investing friend. Get your mind in the gutter, because the purveyor of adult entertainment is the one heading higher. Wall Street is looking for a 21% improvement on the bottom line to $0.23 a share. Then again, after posting a healthy 8% spike in comps for the month of October, investors shouldn't be surprised.

Tuesday
With the holidays on its mind, Wall Street has few reasons to wait around on Tuesday. Companies that have yet to report will wait until the following week to spill the beans.

Wednesday
2008 comes to a close, and the ending can't come soon enough for battered investors. No one is probably more grateful than Legg Mason's (NYSE: LM ) Bill Miller. The fund manager was the industry's rock star after scoring 15 consecutive years of positive results for his growth-peppered value fund. The streak came to a screeching halt after 2005. Barring some unlikely miracle, he is staring at his third straight year of badly underperforming the market.

Thursday
The market is closed on New Year's Day.

Friday
The new trading year kicks off on Friday. 2009 will answer many pressing questions:

Does Sirius XM Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI ) have enough in the tank to make it through three debt refinancing hurdles without filing for bankruptcy reorganization?
Is Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT ) really done with Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO ) ? January is the time of year when the software giant has traditionally approached the struggling dot-com portal.
Can 2009 shake off the demons of 2008? For a few moments at least, it will be refreshing to see year-to-date stock returns that aren't showing double-digit percentage losses.

Until next week, I remain,

Rick Munarriz

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Microsoft and Legg Mason are Motley Fool Inside Value selections. The Fool owns shares of Legg Mason. Try any of our Foolish newsletters today, free for 30 days.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz recommends windshield wiper fluid when trying to look forward. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early. He does own not own shares in any of the companies in this story. The Fool has a disclosure policy.

Read/Post Comments (3) | Recommend This Article (10)

Comments from our Foolish Readers

Help us keep this a respectfully Foolish area! This is a place for our readers to discuss, debate, and learn more about the Foolish investing topic you read about above. Help us keep it clean and safe. If you believe a comment is abusive or otherwise violates our Fool's Rules, please report it via the Report this Comment icon found on every comment.

Report this Comment On December 27, 2008, at 4:26 PM, Fredlee009 wrote:

Will Rick write an article that doesnt mention Sirius in it? Thats my holiday 2009 question....
I doubt it....
Report this Comment On December 28, 2008, at 8:05 AM, noodles1273 wrote:

I agree Fred, anything that mentions Siri gets on yahoo boards and turns them into animals looking for flesh. One fool article mentions SIRI with NOTHING to do with the article, meanwhile as much as I like Tyler from seeking alpha his articles are on the other extreme. Let this hose ride for 4 days without any mention of it. Siri this, that, crap, I feed my cat 9 lives each day, should Purina Chow go up in stock? (Parent is prolly proctor & gamble anyway).
the last point about 2009 ditching 2008 demons should be first, M$ will want yahoo and now just needs to circle them like sharks but deny it all the way. And Sirius was tossed out there to get on boars like yahoo to stir the pot more.
/sigh
Report this Comment On December 29, 2008, at 6:20 PM, codyford1981 wrote:

I disagree, as SIRI is a pivotal stock; whose performance influences much more than than the the portfolios of those who own it. I aplaud Motley Fool for focusing on topics/stocks that affect the "Bigger Picture" so to speak. I would like a more intense focus on the Insurance Industry, as the Property & Casualty sector, as well as the Reinsurers are facing serious corporate decisions to make up for the continuance of this soft cycle and falling rates.

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