Monday, May 21, 2012
The weekend G-8 summit's supposed commitment to keep Greece
within the Euro-zone may not amount to much in the absence of a
favorable outcome from that country's fresh elections next month.
But media reports appear to indicate that support for the centrist
conservative party, which failed to get a majority in this month's
election, to be improving. That said, it is too complicated for
outsiders like us to try to handicap the Greek political scene. But
irrespective of how the Greek story unfolds, it promises to remain
the dominant theme for global markets in the coming days.
We don't have much on the economic docket today and the items on
deck for the rest of the week are also relatively light weight. And
with the
Facebook
(
FB
) IPO now behind us, we don't even have that to look forward to. We
don't have much in terms of catalysts to reverse the persistent
stock market slide of the last few weeks.
Housing will be in focus this week, with the Existing Home sales
for April on Tuesday and New Home sales on Wednesday. Last week's
better than expected Housing Starts and Homebuilder Sentiment
survey are pointing towards favorable momentum on the housing
front. Expectations are for this week's New and Existing Home sales
reports to reverse the March declines and show solid growth rates.
Housing aside, we will get the April Durable Goods report on
Thursday and the weekly Jobless Claims data that same day. The
University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment survey for May, coming
out on Friday, is expected to flat from its last reading.
The first quarter earnings season is effectively over, though we
do have a handful of key reports still to come before we can
'officially' close the books on the reporting season. Of this
morning's basket of reports, Loews (LOW) came out ahead of
expectations, but its outlook for the year is underwhelming.
Campbell Soup
(
CPB
) beat on EPS, but its revenue numbers came in lower than expected.
Other major earnings reports this week include
Best Buy
(
BBY
) and
Dell
(
DELL
) on Tuesday and
Hewlett-Packard
(
HPQ
) on Wednesday.
Sheraz Mian
Director of Research
BEST BUY (BBY): Free Stock Analysis Report
CAMPBELL SOUP (CPB): Free Stock Analysis Report
DELL INC (DELL): Free Stock Analysis Report
FACEBOOK INC-A (FB): Free Stock Analysis Report
HEWLETT PACKARD (HPQ): Free Stock Analysis
Report
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
Zacks Investment
Research
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks
Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the
Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report