Wal-Mart, Disney: Tomorrow's Headliners

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Wal-Mart (WMT Quote) and Disney (DIS Quote) will headline Thursday's session with both components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average are set to report quarterly results.

Wal-Mart should post a profit of 81 cents a share on sales totaling $99.88 billion, according to a poll of analysts by Thomson Reuters. Investors will also get a look at Wal-Mart's same-store sales, as the world's largest retailer recently changed its reporting schedule from monthly to quarterly.

In addition to Wal-Mart, Kohl's (KSS Quote), EnCana (ECA Quote) and BCE (BCE Quote) will be among those companies reporting early Thursday.

Disney's fiscal fourth-quarter report is on tap for Thursday's after-market session, with analysts forecasting a profit of 41 cents a share on revenue of $9.26 billion.

Joining Disney in reporting after Thursday's closing bell are Nordstrom (JWN Quote), Blockbuster (BBI Quote) and URS (URS Quote), among others.

Thursday also marks the return of government economic reports, with the Labor Department's weekly initial jobless claims becoming the first data investors have seen all week. Consensus is for jobless claims to dip to 510,000 from 512,000 claims in the week prior.

At 2 p.m. EST, the Treasury Department will release its budget for October, with the deficit expected to increase to $162.5 billion from $155.5 billion in September.

In addition, the Treasury will hold an auction for $16 billion in 30-year bonds. Tuesday's auction of 10-year notes was fairly strong, fueling cautious optimism that the 30-year auction will see a similar bid-to-cover ratio and number of indirect bidders.