Monday
Soup's on! The new trading week kicks off with Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB) cracking open the can of its fiscal quarter. Investors may see supermarket staples as defensive goods, but that doesn't mean Campbell Soup's bottom line isn't susceptible to a spill. Analysts see earnings at the food giant falling by 7% to $0.64 a share.
Tuesday
If it's Tuesday, it must be shopping time. Several retailers will be checking in with their holiday quarters. Macy's (NYSE: M), Target (NYSE: TGT), and Home Depot (NYSE: HD) are all expected to post sharply lower profits than they did a year earlier.
Wednesday
Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) is one of the few companies expected to post improved earnings this week. Then again, the provider of low-cost enterprise software has also been growing a lot faster than the market in general. One would think that corporate cutbacks would compel companies to spend less on customer-relationship management apps, but Salesforce.com is selling a popular cloud-computing product that is a lot cheaper -- and accessible anywhere that online connectivity can be found.
Thursday
Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) is due on Thursday. The computer maker has fallen from grace in recent years. It once was the envy of Corporate America for its streamlined consumer-direct model, but now Dell is struggling to keep market share from stylish Macs and brisk-selling Acer netbooks. How's it holding up? Is it really entering the smartphone market? You have questions. Dell should have answers.
Friday
We head into the weekend with a sendoff from Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG). The company has beaten Wall Street estimates in four consecutive quarters, though investors must be wary of the current state of the advertising industry. At least if the marketing titan stumbles on Friday, it is armed with enough staff to spin it into something positive.
Until next week, I remain,
Rick Munarriz
