The holiday season will leave us a short trading week as a present. Let's unwrap it to see what we will be getting.
MondayIs Short Circuit that cheesy Ally Sheedy robot movie or a sound investing philosophy? For Jabil Circuits' (NYSE:JBL) sake, let's just hope that No. 5 -- as in fiscal 2005 -- is alive. The printed circuit board specialist will kick off the new week with its fiscal first-quarter report. While the equity has had a bumpy year, if you pull up a chart, you will find that the stock is just where it was a year ago.
But it shouldn't really be that way. If Jabil nails the market's target calling for it to earn $0.31 a share, it will be its most profitable quarter on this side of the millennium. The company has been productive even if its shares have simply gone full circle over the last dozen months.
TuesdayBrokers Bear Stearns (NYSE:BSC) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MWD) will have to share the earnings spotlight come Tuesday morning. With a healthy stock market and the investor appetite receptive to new IPO platters on the menu, one should expect good things from the financial services powerhouses. It's been bittersweet, though, as earlier this month Morgan Stanley faced penalties for not providing timely prospectuses to new issue buyers.
You also have the perpetual nibbling of deep discount brokers taking advantage of the online medium to provide steeply discounted commissions to those looking to make their own investing decisions. The popularity of our Broker Center bears that out. Yes, there is plenty of pie for everyone, but it will be interesting to see how these two traditional brokerage houses make out.
WednesdayYou may have to look hard to find the ConAgra (NYSE:CAG) label in your kitchen, but, trust me, it's there. From Butterball turkeys to Orville Redenbacher popcorn, from Healthy Choice meals and light sweets to Hunt's tomato products, ConAgra dominates most fridges and cupboards. Still not convinced that you're housing some canned ConAgra fugitives? What about Manwich, Hebrew National, or La Choy? Getting warmer?
As you can imagine, with so many different food lines, ConAgra is a food conglomerate that isn't going to spring out with too many surprises. If one of its divisions hits or misses it may sting, but the company has many others to neutralize the mood swings. While buying into a steady yet slow-growing company may not seem all that alluring, at least ConAgra will keep your pockets happy. No, I'm not talking about clipping coupons out of the annual report or "Free Butterball" for Shareholders' Day come mid-March. As far as I know neither of those two things exist -- yet. I'm talking about the company's generous 3.9% dividend that even with the Fed hiking rates five times this year it still makes ConAgra a great income-producing vehicle.
ThursdayIf you feel like sending a "Get Well Soon" card to American Greetings (NYSE:AM), you might want to open the company up and snag a closer peek inside. Yes, it did announce some layoffs earlier this month. Coming just as its two busiest periods of Christmas and Valentine's Day were waiting around the bend may have further hinted that things weren't going exactly according to plan at the greeting card specialist.
Yet a few months earlier the company had posted a strong quarter and had even initiated a quarterly dividend. Second only to Hallmark in the greeting card space, is American Greetings sending out mixed signals? Not necessarily. The move to trim payroll was done with the implied intent of keeping the company's operations lean. Either way, we will edge our way closer to the truth when the company releases its fiscal third-quarter results on Thursday.
Friday
If you were hoping to spend the day staring at rolling ticker symbols at the bottom of your television screen, you're out of luck, sport. Wall Street takes a break to observe the holidays -- and to let everyone reflect on how it's been a pretty good year for the stock market despite its ups and downs.
So go ahead and get into the spirit of the season. Or, at the very least, try not to freak out when you realize that you still aren't done with your gift shopping.
Until next week I remain,
Rick Munarriz
Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz actually enjoyed most of the Ally Sheedy movies. He does not own shares in any companies in this story. He is part of theMotley Fool Rule Breakersnewsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.
