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The Fool's Look Ahead

By Rick Aristotle Munarriz
July 5, 2009 | Comments (3)

Recs

10

Monday
The market will gradually get back into form after the holiday weekend. The exchanges will be open on Monday. They took Friday off. However, stateside companies will not be as wide-eyed. According to my sources, there isn't a single major publicly traded company scheduled to post its quarterly results on Monday. Wait for tomorrow.

Tuesday
Specialty plastics maker A. Schulman (Nasdaq: SHLM) announces earnings on Tuesday. The company expects to see its profits bend but not quite break, falling to $0.09 per share from last year's $0.42 figure.

Wednesday
Speaking of "wait for tomorrow": Do you remember the company behind the "we can't wait for tomorrow" advertising jingle? It's Alcoa (NYSE: AA), and the aluminum giant is projected to post a sharp loss on Wednesday. Maybe it can wait until tomorrow.

Also, Family Dollar (NYSE: FDO), and Nu Horizons (Nasdaq: NUHC) will step up to the earnings stage on Wednesday. Family Dollar is expected to post bottom-line growth, earning $0.59 a share after ringing up a profit of just $0.46 a share last year. Nu Horizons isn't expected to be so lucky.

Thursday
Value Line (Nasdaq: VALU) reports its fiscal fourth-quarter results on Thursday. The independent research giant for stocks, funds, and options has some explaining to do. It boosted its quarterly dividend by $0.10 a share last year, and recently reversed the move. It's not the only company hacking away at its yield, though one would expect a research specialist to have a clearer crystal ball. The Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendation earned $0.48 a share during the same quarter a year ago. Let's see on which side of the growth bar it turns up this time around.

Lawson Software (Nasdaq: LWSN) is also checking in with Mr. Market on Thursday. Wall Street's pros think the enterprise software provider will clock in flat with the $0.10 a share it earned a year ago.

Friday
Oh, if only Progressive (NYSE: PGR) shareholders could be as bubbly and upbeat as Flo, the perky yet quirky star of the auto insurer's television commercials. Friday's report out of Progressive is shaping up to be more of the ho-hum variety. Analysts see the company earning $0.36 a share, exactly what it earned a year ago.

Until next week, I remain,

Rick Munarriz

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

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Report this Comment On July 05, 2009, at 11:01 AM, plange01 wrote:

the 2 car insurance companys that advertise the most with those horrible commercials! are exactly the ones you dont want to use! they take your money with a smile but watch out if you ever need to use them!!..the one that trades(pgr) is a bad buy and the other is a big reason buffetts company is down 50%...
Report this Comment On July 05, 2009, at 11:05 AM, plange01 wrote:

china ,russia and now india are worried about their investments in US dollars.when the biggest countrys in the world worry you better to!the US is in a depression and bankrupt.it has been running a ponzi scheme for years to pay its bills.where do you think madoff got the idea?in the end it wont work any better for the US than it did for him...the ultimate fool?
Report this Comment On July 06, 2009, at 1:29 AM, DiscoFinance wrote:

Rick, are you in the movie "Stock Shock" that just came out about Sirius Xm and naked short selling? you write about them quite a bit. Were you interviewed for Stock Shock?

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