OTCBB ALERTS

[chickwithmoney]

RPT-Wall St Wk Ahead:Recession fears to weigh on earnings rpts
Sun Jan 20, 2008 11:28am EST Email | Print | Share| Reprints | Single Page | Recommend (0) [-] Text [+]
powered by Sphere
Market News
Recession fears to weigh on earnings reports
Wall St. drops as Bush rescue plan disappoints | Video
Sprint shares tumble
More Business & Investing News... Featured Broker sponsored link
$0 stock trades. 10 free per month. (Repeating item that initially moved on Friday)

By Herbert Lash

NEW YORK, Jan 20 (Reuters) - A heavy gloom hanging over Wall Street may deepen this week unless such bellwether companies as Apple and United Technologies provide investors with hope that the U.S. economy can avert recession.

A slew of major corporations, also including Bank of America Corp (BAC.N: Quote, Profile, Research), Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and AT&T Inc (T.N: Quote, Profile, Research), will release quarterly earnings in a shortened trading week that has scant economic data scheduled for release.

Markets will be closed on Monday for Martin Luther King Jr Day.

"Earnings (this) week are the only thing that the market has to hang its hat on. With the market in such a fragile condition, those earnings better be good or we could see some severe selling," Richard Sparks, senior equities analyst with Schaeffer's Investment Research in Cincinnati, said on Friday.

Investors took little solace this past week from a $150 billion White House rescue plan as stocks fell on enormous losses at Citigroup, the top U.S. bank, and Merrill Lynch, the world's largest brokerage, and economic data signaled the U.S. economy was headed for recession.

U.S. stocks, as measured by the broad Standard & Poor's 500 Index, are off 9.7 percent so far in January -- their worst start of a year ever. If markets again slide like they did this week, stocks will be in bear territory -- a 20 percent drop from their peak in October.

One major stock index -- the Russell 2000 Index .RUT of small-cap stocks -- passed that milestone last week. A fall in the S&P 500 of about 5.5 percent this week would put it in bear territory. Its 5.4 percent fall last week was the biggest weekly percentage drop since July 2002. Continued...

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idINN2034984620080120?rpc=44