Exxon, GDP: Tomorrow's Headliners

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Exxon Mobil (XOM Quote) will headline Thursday's slate of earnings reports while the latest read on gross domestic product will be the featured economic release of the day.

Exxon Mobil is expected to report a third-quarter profit of $1.06 a share, down sharply from earnings of $2.59 a share in the year-ago quarter, according to a poll of analysts by Thomson Reuters. Revenue should fall 42% from a year earlier to $79.3 billion. In the year-ago quarter, Exxon had near-record revenue of $137.7 billion.

In addition to Exxon, several other companies will be reporting quarterly results before the start of trading Thursday, including fellow Dow Jones Industrial Average component Procter & Gamble (PG Quote), Motorola (MOT Quote), Aetna (AET Quote), Sprint Nextel (S Quote), Colgate-Palmolive (CL Quote) and Kellogg (K Quote).

Meanwhile, MetLife (MET Quote) will be among a handful of companies scheduled to report after Thursday's closing bell. Analysts are looking for the insurer to report a profit of 87 cents a share on revenue of $12.25 billion.

Traders will also be paying plenty of attention to the day's slate of economic releases, which should include technical proof that the recession has ended. At 8:30 a.m. EDT, the Commerce Department is expected to say that the advance read on gross domestic product for the third quarter rose 3.2%, ending four straight quarters of negative growth.

A recession is classically defined as at least two successive quarters of negative GDP growth. Of course, that hasn't stopped both the National Association for Business Economics and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke from stating that the recession is already over.

However, some aren't expecting third-quarter GDP growth to be so robust. On Wednesday, a day before the GDP report's release, Goldman Sachs cut its third-quarter GDP estimate to 2.7% from 3%, citing durable-goods shipments that came in weaker than the firm had expected.

The weekly report on initial jobless claims is also on tap, due for release at 8:30 a.m. EDT. The Labor Department should say that initial claims dipped to 525,000 last week from 531,000 the week prior. Continuing claims should remain below the 6 million mark, falling to 5.905 million from 5.923 million the week before.

-- Written by Robert Holmes in New York.

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