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SH Market Preview
10/18/04 12:12AM


By Keri Korteling ([e-mail])

Investors will turn their focus to the flood of earnings data next week in a week that's light on economic data.

Among the companies scheduled to report in the week ahead are Dow components 3M (NYSE: MMM) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) on Monday; Ford (NYSE: F) and McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) on Tuesday; troubled carrier Delta Airlines (NYSE: DAL) and internet giant EBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) on Wednesday. On Thursday, Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY), Merck (NYSE: MRK) and Schering Plough (NYSE: SGP) will be reporting.

The consumer price index is out on Tuesday, and many economists expect that the data will show surging oil prices have not yet contributed to a climb in inflation.

After the bell, Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) said a U.S. District Court ruled in its favor in a patent wrangle with Transkaryotic Therapies (NASDAQ: TKTX) and Aventis (NYSE: AVE) over Amgen's erythropoietin products.

Canadian investors will be watching for another Bank of Canada interest rate hike on Tuesday. A 25-basis point increase would bring the Bank's key overnight rate to 2.5%, and support further strength in the Canadian dollar because of the rate gap.

Canadian companies slated to report earnings include Cogeco Cable (TSX: T.CCA.SV) and its parent Cogeco Inc (TSX: T.CGO.SV) on Monday. On Wednesday, Zarlink Semiconductor (TSX: T.ZL), Husky Energy (TSX: T.HSE), and Goldcorp (TSX: T.G) will report. TransAlta (TSX: T.TA) and Celestica (TSX: T.CLS) report on Thursday; and Falconbridge (TSX: T.FL) will announce its third quarter results on Friday.

U.S. stock markets recovered from Thursday's steep slide, as investors cheered a report showing retail strength. Indices reacted positively to a speech by Alan Greenspan in which the Federal Reserve Chairman said that high oil prices had would not impair growth as significantly as the oil shocks of the 1970s. However, the Fed Chairman did say that energy price increases had likely knocked three-quarters of a percent from GDP this year.

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