7 Reasons Not to Worry This Week

It's only natural to worry about the swine flu outbreak or how your favorite team fared during the weekend's NFL draft.

Should you be worried about the market, after the mixed closes between the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq stocks? Maybe not.

On Friday, I went over seven companies that are expected to post lower earnings this week. Today I'm back to offer the flip side. Despite the economic upheaval and the dearth of consumer spending, there are actually plenty of companies that are projected to post higher earnings this week than they did during the same quarter a year ago.

Once again, let me lay it all on the table for you.

Source: Yahoo! Finance. EPS = earnings per share.

Clearing the table
These aren't the only companies expected to post higher net income this week, but they are the ones that have caught my eye.

Let's start with Baidu. China's leading search engine posts its quarterly results tonight. Analysts expect earnings to climb 27%, to $0.76 a share. That is lower than the headier growth that investors typically get out of the dot-com bellwether, but any growth is good growth these days. Baidu received a pair of analyst upgrades last month, so at least a few pros appear to like the company's chances.

Buffalo Wild Wings has been bucking the trend of languishing casual-dining chains, so it makes sense to expect the family-friendly sports bars to come through again.

I'm offering up Bristol-Myers Squibb as a Big Pharma gainer, especially since many of its peers have been braced for bottom-line shortcomings in recent weeks.

Comcast is another intriguing stock. Many consumer-leaning subscription services are feeling the pinch as people scale back on their home-entertainment options. Comcast would seem to be susceptible given its chunky cable television, broadband, and Web phone products. We'll find out a lot about customer loyalty at Comcast this week.

MasterCard has held up better than most financial services companies. The key to the company's ability to skirt disaster is that it simply markets its credit cards, while issuing banks are on the hook when cardholders can't pay. Can the economy tank to the point where transactions and credit applications plummet? Of course, but analysts don't think we're at that point just yet.

Eastman Kodak isn't going to pull itself out of the red this week. After a loss in the year-ago period, the attraction to Kodak is the belief that the photography pioneer will post a narrower deficit this time around.

Colgate-Palmolive is brushing up for what should be an 8% uptick in profits on a per-share basis. Sure, supermarket brands typically hold up well in an economic downturn, but isn't there a point at which cash-strapped shoppers dismiss brand loyalty and buy cheaper generic wares? Colgate-Palmolive watchers don't see that happening.

Smile like you mean it
A lot of things can go wrong, of course. China's economy -- seemingly more resilient than other country economies -- may still find online advertisers scaling back on their marketing spends at Baidu. Comcast may shed subscribers, especially in cable television. MasterCard can't grow much if folks aren't applying for new plastic. Kodak still doesn't have a solution for the major dilemma that digital photography presents -- no film and a dearth of photofinishing business.

These seven companies have more pressure on them than the seven companies I singled out on Friday. These are the ones that are expected to post improved results. The optimism is already baked into their share prices.

Talk about pressure. Then again, optimism vindicated is nearly as sweet as pessimism rebuffed.

Some other reads to get you through the week:

• 3 Reasons Why the Dow Won't Hit 5,000
• 7 Stocks That Should Soar This Month
• You're All Hypocrites