Tuesday
Shaw Group (Nasdaq: SHAW) and Progress Software (Nasdaq: PRGS) are a couple of the companies checking in with their latest quarterly reports on Tuesday.
Shaw Group is a Louisiana-based engineering giant that raked in $7 billion in revenue last year. Progress Software is an enterprise-software specialist. Progress is toiling away in the sexier niche, but it's Shaw Group that's expected to post a year-over-year improvement on the bottom line.
Wednesday
Family Dollar (NYSE: FDO), Acuity Brands (NYSE: AYI), and Lindsay (NYSE: LNN) all report on Wednesday. The three companies have little in common, but all three are targeted to post higher earnings than they did a year ago.
Thursday
MSC Industrial (Nasdaq: MSCI), a direct marketer of industrial products, steps up to the earnings stage on Thursday with a conference call to discuss its fiscal-third-quarter results.
Thursday also marks the end of the second quarter. After rough trading activity through May and most of June, don't be surprised if window dressing is a little more active than usual. What's window dressing? That's what it's called when portfolio managers trade out of poor performers and buy into winners, to make it seem as if they successfully navigated the market's choppy currents. Most investors are smart enough to ignore the practice. Performance metrics reveal everything, eventually.
Friday
The third quarter kicks off quietly on the earnings front, so get a good jump on the holiday weekend.
Until next week, I remain,
