Coming Week: Tech Check

IBM's warning sent chills down the market's spine. This week brings earnings from Intel, Juniper, eBay and more.

Author:: Gregg Greenberg
Publish date:: Apr 15, 2005 8:16 PM EDT

Investors might welcome a break after a turbulent spell that culminated in Thursday's market-melting earnings warning from

IBM

(IBM) - Get Report

. Unfortunately, no such reprieve is in the offing, as the coming week promises once more to be chock-full of big earnings and economic reports.

"Last week ended badly after the IBM surprise stepped in front of good earnings news from

(GE) - Get Report

and

Citigroup

," says Paul Mendelsohn, strategist at Windham Financial. "Next week will once again be dominated by earnings, but there will be some tension diverted to the releases of the PPI and CPI, which will let us know whether or not we are heading into a period of stagflation."

IBM stunned the market last Thursday by unveiling a nickel-a-share earnings shortfall. The stock tumbled 7.5% Friday after a flurry of downgrades from sell-side analysts.

Paul Cherney, a strategist at S&P, worries that companies reporting in coming days could offer further bad news on corporate tech spending.

"IBM's admission that they can't close deals is evidence that corporate spending might become a bigger problem than expected," says Cherney.

Big tech spending tells in the next week could come from

Texas Instruments

(TXN) - Get Report

, due to post numbers late Monday, and

Juniper Networks

(JNPR) - Get Report

and

Intel

(INTC) - Get Report

, both of which report after the bell Tuesday. Juniper rivals

Foundry Networks

(FDRY)

and

Extreme Networks

(EXTR) - Get Report

both warned this past week, stoking fears that communications-gear companies may be encountering some of the same problems as IBM and the software pushers.

Also posting earnings Monday and Tuesday will be industrial giant

(MMM) - Get Report

, pharma heavyweights

Eli Lilly

(LLY) - Get Report

Johnson & Johnson

(JNJ) - Get Report

and

Pfizer

(PFE) - Get Report

, brokerage

Merrill Lynch

(MER)

and stun-gun maker

Taser International

(TASR)

Wednesday will bring releases from

Caterpillar

(CAT) - Get Report

Ford

(F) - Get Report

J.P. Morgan Chase

(JPM) - Get Report

and

Yum! Brands

(YUM) - Get Report

Internet auctioneer

eBay

(EBAY) - Get Report

also releases quarterly results on Wednesday. Analysts expect the company to earn 18 cents a share, up from 16 cents last year, on $1.03 billion in revenue.

Thursday is stuffed with earnings reports from

Amgen

(AMGN) - Get Report

Broadcom

(BRCM)

JetBlue Airways

(JBLU) - Get Report

and

McDonald's

(MCD) - Get Report

Of course, earnings are far from the only story we'll be watching in the next week. What corporations are paying for their goods -- and whether prices are rising too quickly for them to fully pass their costs onto consumers -- will come into focus on Tuesday with the release of the March producer price index.

The consensus estimate for the PPI is for an increase of 0.6%, but Rich Yamarone, chief economist at Argus Research, projects a 1.1% rise when the number is released next week.

"Commodity prices have receded recently, but during March the CRB index was hitting new highs," says Yamarone. "If we get a blowout PPI number, then we could possibly see the market capitulate."

In terms of economic data, the PPI will be followed by the consumer price index on Wednesday, along with the

Fed's

Beige Book.

While Yamarone's tone may be cautionary, Al Goldman, chief market strategist at A.G. Edwards, has a cheerier view of last week's carnage in stocks. Goldman says the gloom and doom over the market has led to oversold conditions.

"Forget the economics, we are short-term oversold and should get a bounce next week," says Goldman. "The level of gloom has reached proportions where it's time to buy. People are acting like the economy is going into the tank, and it's not."