Monday
Stateside exchanges are closed for Labor Day. Life goes on in other markets overseas, though your best bet is to sleep in, tip your hat to the holiday, and then move on to due diligence on the companies that will be reporting later in the week.

Tuesday
Casey's General Stores (Nasdaq: CASY) kicks off the shortened trading week with its first quarterly report of its 2011 fiscal year. The convenience store chain is expected to earn $0.81 a share for the period, just shy of the $0.87 a share it rang up a year ago.

Wednesday
Hi Tech Pharmacal (Nasdaq: HITK) and United Natural Foods (Nasdaq: UNFI) lead the crop of quarterly reports Wednesday.

United Natural Foods is sometimes considered a cheap way to piggyback on the success of Whole Foods Market (Nasdaq: WFMI). After all, if Whole Foods is doing well it probably means that United's organic and specialty foods are selling briskly. Both United and Whole Foods are expected to grow sales and earnings modestly this year.

Thursday
Peregrine Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: PPHM) and Piedmont Natural Gas (NYSE: PNY) check in Thursday.

Peregrine posted a wider loss last time out. Analysts see a rerun Thursday, with its quarterly deficit roughly doubling last year's red ink during the same quarter. Piedmont is also seen posting a slightly wider loss than last year.

Friday
 High-yielding identification-solutions specialist Brady (NYSE: BRC) closes out the abridged trading week with its quarterly report. Analysts see a profit of $0.48 a share, 12% ahead of last year's showing. If it comes through with a strong report and shorts scramble to cover their positions, would that be considered a Brady bunch?

Until next week, I remain,
Rick Munarriz