Sears, Dell: Tomorrow's Headliners

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Sears Holdings (SHLD Quote) and Dell (DELL Quote) will be in the spotlight Thursday as both are set to report quarterly earnings.

Before Thursday's opening bell, Sears should notch a third-quarter loss of $1.09 on sales of $9.92 billion, according to a poll of analysts by Thomson Reuters.

In addition, several other retailers will be reporting earnings before the start of trading Thursday. Video-game shop GameStop (GME Quote), Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS Quote) and Williams-Sonoma (WSM Quote) are scheduled to post earninigs.

After the trading day ends, Dell is expected to record a fiscal second-quarter profit of 28 cents a share on revenue totaling $13.18 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

Also after Thursday's closing bell, retailers Gap (GPS Quote) and Foot Locker (FL Quote) are on tap to report quarterly results.

Thursday's economic slate includes the Labor Department's weekly initial jobless claims report at 8:30 a.m. EST, which should show that claims ticked higher to 504,000 from 502,000 the week prior. The continuing claims measure should continue to fall to 5.59 million from 5.63 million the week before.

At 10 a.m. EST, the Conference Board's report on leading economic indicators for October should show a 0.4% increase after a 1% climb in August. At the same time, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve will release its manufacturing index, which economists polled by Reuters predicting a reading of 12.5 for November, up from 11.5 last month.

Investors will also have to watch for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's forecast for major world economies, due for release Thursday.

-- Written by Robert Holmes in New York.

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