The Fool's Look Ahead

Monday
The new trading week kicks off with aluminum giant Alcoa (NYSE: AA) reporting results. This normally wouldn't be a head-turning event, but after announcing massive layoffs and a 50% reduction in spending, even non-Alcoa investors will be tuning in to see what's eating at the company that once couldn't wait for tomorrow (or so its old jingle went).

Tuesday
India's Infosys (Nasdaq: INFY) reports on Tuesday. An IT outsourcing company posting its quarterly results is typically a yawner, but after Wednesday's accounting fraud debacle at rival Satyam Computer Services (NYSE: SAY), investors will want to see if Infosys can take advantage of the massive credibility hit at its rival.

Wednesday
Xilinx (Nasdaq: XLNX) checks in on Wednesday. Analysts see the company earning $0.32 a share in its fiscal third quarter. That is lower than the $0.35 a share it earned a year ago, though the programming logic solutions specialist has managed to clock in ahead of Wall Street expectations in the first two quarters of fiscal 2009.

Thursday
Computer chip titan Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) steps up -- or down -- on Thursday. The company already warned that revenue would come in at around $8.2 billion. That is 23% lower than last year's showing and less than the company had originally projected back in November. How badly will earnings get hit? Are the lower-priced Atom chips that Intel is using to power netbooks crushing margins? These are questions that only Thursday can answer.

Friday
You can smell earnings season coming when familiar companies are reporting results on Friday. This time it will be industrial heavyweights Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI) and PPG Industries (NYSE: PPG) under the conference call spotlight.

Until next week, I remain,

Rick Munarriz