Earnings season continues in earnest this week, with several big-time companies slated to release results. We’ll also be on the lookout for retail sales numbers (from individual companies and the economy as a whole), jobless claims, and the latest consumer sentiment data.
Key Earnings This Week Include Coke, Pepsi, and Kraft
Monday isn’t a big day for earnings this week, but midweek will be packed with major companies posting calendar fourth quarter results. Here are the names we’ll be keying in on over the next several days.
Monday’s Earnings
Tuesday’s Earnings
Wednesday’s Earnings
- PepsiCo (PEP )
- Cisco Systems (CSCO )
- Time Warner (TWX)
- Mondelez International (MDLZ )
- MetLife (MET )
- Lorillard (LO)
Thursday’s Earnings
Friday’s Earnings
As you can see, a lot of heavy hitters are reporting this week, particularly on the consumer non-cyclical side. Considering the number of market-moving firms delivering earnings, we may be in for another bumpy ride.
Retail Sales in Focus, Too
Many retailers provide same-store and overall sales updates on a monthly basis, although the trend in recent years has been moving away from this traditional practice. Still, this week we’ll see monthly sales results from several companies, including McDonald’s (MCD ), which posted disappointing numbers this morning.
On Thursday, we’ll see weekly jobless claims numbers, and more importantly, monthly overall retail sales data. These monthly sales reports from the Census Bureau tally up the total sales receipts for all U.S. stores that sell merchandise and related services to consumers. Considering that consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of the U.S. GDP, this number is closely watched by market participants. December’s retail data was also a big disappointment, as the -0.9% month-over-month change badly missed the consensus analyst estimate for a -0.5% drop. Thus, investors will be looking for this number to show signs of improvement.
On a final note, the U.S. markets will be closed on Monday, February 16, in observance of Presidents’ Day.
