Stock Market This Week: 7/20/09

Get ready. We are about to be bombarded with earnings from 29% (143) of the companies listed in the S&P 500.

Lucky 7's? The markets were up about 7 percent last week. Whether you were long or short, trading last week had to the hardest it has been in a long time. No one expected the market to practically go straight up, especially the magnitude of the move.

Intel reported last Tuesday afternoon, while the futures market was closed. It reported stellar earnings and guidance, causing the price to exceed the expected move. When the futures market reopened, the /ES (S&P 500 mini futures) gapped up over 7 points! I have not seen that kind of a gap in the futures market for quite some time.

When everybody starts talking about chart patterns / formations, you know it's time to move away from that thesis. It has failed. The 870-880 level on the S&P 500 has proven to be a formidable support line. If for some odd reason (earnings or some exogenous news event) we get down to that level and crack it: Look Out!

The doji formation on the monthly index charts of the S&P 500 and Dow Jones are still intact. The close of this week's candle on these markets will tell us if it will be broken and thus, failure. With the bevy of earnings that are slated to report this week, I am 99% confident that we will get some closure to continued strength or possible down-side movement.

What's interesting is that other than Goldman Sachs (GS), the financials did not perform well last week. Tech, as for most of 2009, was the leader last week. It made fresh yearly highs last week.

Tech giants (AAPL, YHOO, MSFT; to name a few) will be reporting this week. They have had an enormous rise into earnings.

If the tech sector falters this week, and the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrials fail to make new yearly highs, it could be an ominous signal for the rest of the stock market.

P.S. Yahoo's earnings report should be interesting to see if they confirm or dispel the Microsoft rumors!

Economic reports will take a back seat to earnings this week. Note, Fed Chairman, Ben Bernanke, will be testifying on monetary policy on Tuesday at 10:00 AM.

Here are the earnings that will garnish a lot of attention:

Monday

Before Market Open (BMO)

Halliburton (HAL)
Johnson Controls (JCI)

After Market Close (AMC)

Boston Scientific (BSX)
Legg Mason (LM)
Texas Instruments (TXN)
Zions Bancorp (ZION)

Tuesday

Before Market Open (BMO)

AK Steel (AKS)
BJ Services (BJS)
BlackRock (BLK)
Caterpillar (CAT)
Coca-Cola (KO)
Continental Air (CAL)
DuPont (DD)
Freeport-McMoRan (FCX)
Hudson City Banc (HCBK)
Jefferies Group (JEF)
Lockheed Martin (LMT)
Merck (MRK)
Peabody Energy (BTU)
Quest Diagnostics (DGX)
Regions Fincl (RF)
Schering-Plough (SGP)
Sherwin-Williams (SHW)
Southwest Air (LUV)
State Street (STT)
TD Ameritrade (AMTD)
UAL Corp. (UAUA)
United Tech (UTX)
UnitedHealth (UNH)
Vornado Rlty Trust (VNO)
Western Union (WU)

After Market Close (AMC)

Advanced Micro (AMD)
Apple (AAPL)
Boston Prpts (BXP)
Gilead Sciences (GILD)
Linear Tech (LLTC)
Seagate Tech (STX)
SLM Corp (SLM)
Starbucks (SBUX)
Yahoo! (YHOO)

Wednesday

Before Market Open (BMO)

Altria (MO)
Bank of NY (BK)
Boeing (BA)
Delta Air Lines (DAL)
Eli Lilly (LLY)
Genzyme (GENZ)
Morgan Stanley (MS)
Northern Trust (NTRS)
PepsiCo (PEP)
Pfizer (PFE)
Piper Jaffray (PJC)
St. Jude Medical (STJ)
SunTrust Banks (STI)
US Bancorp (USB)
Wells Fargo (WFC)

After Market Close (AMC)

E*TRADE (ETFC)
eBay (EBAY)
Equifax (EFX)
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG)
Mosaic (MOS)
Noble Corp (NE)
OSI Pharm (OSIP)
Qualcomm (QCOM)
Raymond James (RJF)
SanDisk (SNDK)
Steel Dynamics (STLD)
VMware (VMW)
Walter Inds (WLT)

Thursday

Before Market Open (BMO)

3M (MMM)
AT&T (T)
Ball Corp (BLL)
Bristol-Myers (BMY)
Bunge (BG)
Cash America (CSH)
Celgene (CELG)
CIT Group (CIT)
CME Group (CME)
Coventry Health Care (CVH)
Diamond Offshore (DO)
EMC Corp (EMC)
FLIR Systems (FLIR)
Ford Motor (F)
Goodrich (GR)
Huntington Banc (HBAN)
Intl Game Tech (IGT)
Jetblue Airways (JBLU)
L-3 Comms (LLL)
Laboratory Corp (LH)
Manpower (MAN)
McDonald's (MCD)
Newmont Mining (NEM)
Nucor (NUE)
Occidental Petro (OXY)
Philip Morris International (PM)
PNC Bank (PNC)
Potash (POT)
Raytheon (RTN)
Reliance Steel (RS)
Reynolds American (RAI)
Safeway (SWY)
Starwood Hotels (HOT)
T. Rowe Price (TROW)
Union Pacific (UNP)
UPS (UPS)
US Airways (LCC)
Wyeth (WYE)

After Market Close (AMC)

Amazon.com (AMZN)
American Express (AXP)
Baidu.com (BIDU)
Bucyrus (BUCY)
Cabot Oil & Gas (COG)
Capital One (COF)
Cheesecake Factory (CAKE)
Deckers Outdoor (DECK)
EZCORP (EZPW)
Juniper Networks (JNPR)
KLA-Tencor (KLAC)
Leggett & Platt (LEG)
MEMC Elec (WFR)
Microsoft (MSFT)
Nutrisystem (NTRI)
Rambus (RMBS)
Sunpower (SPWRA)
Travelzoo (TZOO)

Friday

Before Market Open (BMO)

Arch Coal (ACI)
Ashland (ASH)
Black & Decker (BDK)
Fortune Brands (FO)
Ingersoll-Rand (IR)
Schlumberger (SLB)