On Tap Today: Some Earnings Hors d'Oeuvres Ahead of the Season

In the wake of the postholiday session's slam of Computer Associates (CA) - Get Report and other unlucky names, investors can look beyond the tech sector to three companies reporting earnings today.

From the services sector,

Safeway

(SWY)

and

Marriott

(MAR) - Get Report

give second-quarter results.

Venturing tentatively into e-tail, Safeway in April invested $30 million in online supermarket

GroceryWorks.com

, a private firm that serves shoppers in Texas.

Courtyard by Marriott

last week opened its 500th hotel, becoming the first Marriott brand to reach the number. Courtyard will open 35 additional properties by year's end, and Marriott intends to grow by one thousand hotels, to 2,600 worldwide, in the five-year period ending in 2003.

Marriott and Safeway will broadcast their investor communication conference calls over the Internet today on the

Investor Broadcast Network

-- Marriott at 10 a.m. EDT, Safeway at 11 a.m. The events are available free through the network's

V-call Web site.

Elsewhere, medical device maker

Biomet

(BMET)

, a

Nasdaq 100

company, will release fourth-quarter results.

Expect economic snapshots of last week in today's

Mortgage Applications Survey

and

initial jobless claims

. The latter includes a four-week average that may reveal an underlying trend in claims and predict the tone of the influential

employment report

, due Friday.

Also,

factory orders

for May are due.

Expected Earnings Reports

(

This table includes S&P 500 companies only. Dates are as expected according to First Call/Thomson Financial and may change.

)

Economic Data

(

Forecasts are from

Reuters

. Times are Eastern. For a longer-term economic calendar and more, see

TSC's

Economic Databank.

)

7 a.m.: Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ended Friday. Source: Mortgage Bankers Association. Forecast: N/A. Previous: 319.2. Includes Refinancing Index. Also includes Purchase Index. Forecast: N/A. Previous: 305.8.
8:30 a.m.: Initial jobless claims for the week ended Saturday. Source: Labor Department. Forecast: N/A. Previous: 306,000. Includes four-week average. Forecast: N/A. Previous: 305,250.
10 a.m.: Factory orders for May. Source: Census Bureau. Forecast: 3.4%. Previous: -4.3%.