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Coming Week: Alternative Ideas

 

Earnings Onslaught

Corporate earnings will dominate attention in the coming week, but a few key economic releases concerning the housing sector could steal a headline or two.

On Thursday, the National Association of Realtors will announce December existing-home sales data. The consensus estimate is for a rate of 6.3 million sales on an annualized basis, up slightly from the rate of 6.28 million in November.

New-home sales figures for December are set for release on Friday, along with the durable goods orders for the month. Economists are looking for new-home sales to have climbed to 1.053 million from 1.047 million the prior month. Durable orders are expected to show a rise of 1% vs. growth of 1.9% in November.

The earnings cascade resumes Monday with reports from Eaton(ETN), Pfizer(PFE) and American Express(AXP).

Chipmaker Texas Instruments(TXN) also will report Monday amid a rough spell for the semis. The company has already warned that sales were below its original expectations.

Tuesday's highlights include reports from Bank of America(BAC), DuPont(DD), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Advanced Micro Devices(AMD).

Yahoo!(YHOO) is on tap to report earnings after the bell Tuesday. Analysts are looking for the Internet giant to post earnings of 13 cents a share, down from 16 cents last year, on sales of $1.22 billion.

Among some of the notable names on Wednesday's earnings docket are Corning(GLW), ConocoPhillips(COP), eBay(EBAY), McDonald's(MCD) and General Dynamics(GD).

The action remains hot and heavy on Thursday with reports from AT&T(T), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), Ford Motor (F) and Lockheed Martin(LMT).

Microsoft(MSFT) will also be reporting its second-quarter earnings on Thursday. Wall Street expects the software giant to post earnings of 23 cents a share, down a dime from a year ago, on revenue of $12.06 billion.

The frenetic pace cools off a bit on Friday, but there will still be some big hitters stepping up to the plate, including Dow components Caterpillar(CAT) and Honeywell(HON).

Staff reporter Gregg Greenberg contributed to this story.

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Aaron L. Task is Editor-at-Large of TheStreet.com. In keeping with TSC's editorial policy, he doesn't own or short individual stocks, although he owns stock in TheStreet.com. He also doesn't invest in hedge funds or other private investment partnerships. He appreciates your feedback; click here to send him an email.

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