The Fool Looks Ahead

Stocks from China and taxes will color in the week that lies ahead.

Monday
The trading week begins with Chinese dot-com darlings SINA (Nasdaq: SINA  ) and Perfect World (Nasdaq: PWRD  ) reporting. Many stateside investors may be ignoring China's growth stocks, but this doesn't mean that they stopped growing. Leading portal SINA is projected to grow its profitability by 22%, while online gaming company Perfect World should grow its bottom line even more.

Tuesday
A sharp contrast in retailing will be on display as TJX Companies (NYSE: TJX  ) and Saks (NYSE: SKS  ) report. TJX is the parent company of Marshalls and T.J. Maxx, two magnets of thrifty shoppers going through picked-over racks to find discounted apparel. Saks runs the high-end department store that bears its name. Both companies may fish for entirely different demographics, but they are expected to improve on last year's bottom lines.

Wednesday
Architectural design software specialist Autodesk (Nasdaq: ADSK  ) rolls out its quarterly blueprints. For the bellwether for both the real estate and computing industries, analysts are targeting a profit of $0.22 a share, ahead of last year's $0.18 a share.

Thursday
Intuit (Nasdaq: INTU  ) checks in. This is a very seasonal company because its accounting software is in healthy demand during the beginning of the new business year and through the course of tax-filing season. So, yes, this should be a meaty quarter for Intuit.

Friday
The trading week usually ends quietly, but Ann Taylor (NYSE: ANN  ) is dressing up for its quarterly results. The retailer's specialty is fashionable, work-friendly attire for women, making it a better proxy for the state of corporate hiring than it may be for retail in general.

Until next week, I remain,

Rick Munarriz