Monday
The holiday-shortened trading week begins with Hewlett-Packard's (NYSE:HPQ) better-than-expected fourth-quarter report. How can I be so sure? Well, HP said so. It preannounced on Tuesday that its performance will exceed Wall Street's profit projections.

You have to love the job that Mark Hurd is doing at HP. He has turned around a fading company, at a time when other PC makers have been going the other way.

Tuesday
You know it's going to be ugly for homebuilder D.R. Horton (NYSE:DHI). Analysts are braced for the residential developer to post a loss of $1.88 a share for the quarter. Another projected bleeder on Tuesday is RV maker Fleetwood. Wall Street sees a deficit of $0.44 a share, a reversal of a small profit from a year ago. In short, a house on wheels is bad, but a house without wheels is worse.

Another notable company that will probably spill some red ink on Tuesday is TiVo (NASDAQ:TIVO). The company that pioneered digital video recorders is projected to post a small loss, after surprising the market with back-to-back quarters of profitability earlier this year.

Wednesday
Deere
(NYSE:DE) drives up on Wednesday. This agricultural-equipment maker isn't struggling like its distant wheeled cousins in Detroit. Deere products help farmers work their fields, and that is one industry that has not gone out of favor. Analysts see earnings of $0.99 a share, just above the $0.94 it posted in net income a year ago.

Far away from the farm, upscale jeweler Tiffany (NYSE:TIF) reports. This company may seem like a perfect victim in the soft economy, but analysts see the ritzy retailer matching the $0.27-per-share profit it earned a year ago. 

Thursday
If you can't think of too many things to be thankful for in this year of brutal market beatings, well, just be thankful that the market isn't trading on Thanksgiving.

Friday
Let's wrap up the trading week by catching up with Texas Industries (NYSE:TXN). Don't expect too much. Wall Street guesstimates call for a fiscal second-quarter profit of $0.26 a share, roughly a quarter of the $1.05 a share it earned a year ago.

Until next week, I remain,

Rick Munarriz