The Fool Looks Ahead

Monday
The new trading week kicks off with Synovus Financial (NYSE: SNV  ) reporting on Monday. The market sees a substantially smaller quarterly deficit out of the regional banker. Synovus brought in a new CEO this month, so the conference call promises to be an interesting one.

Tuesday
U.S. Steel (NYSE: X  ) is hoping that "X" marks the spot on Tuesday. Analysts expect a profit of $0.22 a share out of the steelmaker, reversing a steep loss a year earlier.

Another company taking the earnings stage on Tuesday is Broadcom (Nasdaq: BRCM  ) . Unlike Synovus and U.S. Steel, Broadcom was squarely profitable a year ago, and heady growth is still expected, with Wall Street banking on a healthy 78% surge in earnings per share.

Wednesday
LSI (NYSE: LSI  ) reports on Wednesday. The semiconductor and data-storage specialist is a decent generator of cash flow and a reasonable play on the upcoming tablet-computing wave, but things aren't going to play out accordingly this time around. The pros see LSI's earnings coming in substantially lower than during the same quarter last year.

Thursday
Level 3 (Nasdaq: LVLT  ) dabbles in everything from content delivery to a comprehensive suite of telco services. The one thing it doesn't seem to dabble in is profitability. Level 3's been posting quarterly losses for years. Will this finally be the quarter that turns the company around? I wouldn't bet on it. 

Friday
It's usually quiet on Fridays, but that isn't the case during earnings season. The trading week wraps up with Weyerhaeuser (NYSE: WY  ) and Ameren (NYSE: AEE  ) reporting their quarterly numbers. Both companies are expected to improve over last year's bottom-line showing.

Until next week, I remain,

Rick Munarriz