7 Reasons to Worry About Next Week

If there's any chance that Mr. Market had lulled you into a cradle of complacency, yesterday's wild trading surely must have rocked you hard. But you don't need Greek debt, investment banking fraud allegations, or even yesterday's iffy pummeling to frighten you. Plenty of earnings reports could do the very same thing next week.

Even as the economy shows signs of life, many companies are still posting lower earnings year over year. Let's go over a few of the pretenders expected to reveal shrinking bottom-line results next week:

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

Clearing the table
Though more companies will post lower earnings next week, these are just a few of the names that really jump out at me.

Let's start with DISH. The country's second-largest player in satellite television has a hard act to follow on Monday. Its largest rival just posted a blowout quarter; DirecTV's revenue climbed 14%, with earnings nearly tripling. DirecTV also added 100,000 net new subscribers during the period, even as couch potatoes are trying to scale back their television expenses. No one is expecting DISH's bottom line to nearly triple, though subscriber retention will be a key metric to watch if profitability slips as projected.

We recently profiled Fluor, spotlighting its low earnings multiple, five-star CAPS rating, and an annualized earnings growth rate of 36% over the past three years. Unfortunately, that last gauge is a rear-view mirror for the diversified infrastructure giant.

China Digital TV is a play on the migration to digital television in the world's most populous nation. China is asking its couch potatoes to update their television sets over the next five years, and China Digital TV is the leader behind the technology that will make it possible. This is a long-term play, so investors shouldn't expect growth overnight. However, China Digital TV has delivered quarterly profit declines for more than a year now.

DryShips provides a fleet of ships for lugging around dry bulk cargo. Yes, the company is based in Greece, but don't hold that against it these days. DryShips is a true global player, and it's also one of the better bellwethers for the economy in general.

E-House is a leading real estate agency in China. This may seem like a booming market, and perhaps a frothy one. Revenue is actually expected to more than double in its latest quarter. Unfortunately, that heady spurt won't be reflected on the bottom line.

Jack in the Box runs the popular namesake burger chain. It also watches over Qdoba Mexican Grill. Fast food is a mixed Happy Meal bag these days. Value menus helped many players thrive during the recession as casual dining struggled, but the margins on marked-down eats aren't always kind.

Finally, we have Blockbuster reminding investors to "be kind, rewind" -- and remember its merrier days. The liquidation of rival Movie Gallery may seem to pose an opportunity to grab market share, but physical DVD rentals look like a shrinking pie. Worse yet, the word "bankruptcy" appeared in Blockbuster's March 10-K filing a whopping 17 times. Blockbuster has a proven CEO at the helm, and upside potential if it's able to make the digital migration, but this will be a rough stretch for the fallen star. The pros see Blockbuster posting a small deficit, reversing last year's quarterly profit.

Why the long face, short-seller?
These seven companies have seen better days. While the market has rewarded many of these stocks with healthy gains over the past year, they still haven't earned those gains.

The good news here is that Wall Street already expects these companies to deliver shrinking bottom lines. In other words, the bad news is already baked into the shares.

The more I think about it, the less worried I become.