This Week: Feels Like Summer So Sell

This week’s market feels slow, like summer is supposed to be. As a result, it is probably the right time to take some money off the table. Most of the major corporations have already reported their earnings results, but a good number of interesting ideas are still coming to the wire this week, including for instance McDonald’s, Tesla Motors and Zillow. Economically speaking, there does not seem to be a market moving data point, but trade data out of China should prove a critical measure of the global economy. Also, U.S. investors will do their best to measure the American consumer based on the monthly same-store sales reports of retailers this week.

Index ETF	Week Ending August 2	Year-to-Date
SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY)	+1.1%	+20.0%
SPDR Dow Jones (NYSE: DIA)	+0.7%	+19.6%
PowerShares QQQ (Nasdaq: QQQ)	+2.1%	+18.2%

With the FOMC Policy Statement, GDP Report and Employment data behind us now, there’s not much catalyst to move stocks this week and definitely not as much as last week.

Economic Events

THIS WEEK’S ECONOMIC REPORT SCHEDULE
Economic Data Point	Prior	Expected
MONDAY
Gallup US Consumer Spending	90
ISM Non-Manufacturing Index	52.2	53.0
TD Ameritrade Investor Movement Index	5.15
TUESDAY
International Trade Report (Balance)	-$45.0 B	-$43.0 B
Gallup Economic Confidence	-13
ICSC Store Sales	-1.6%
Job Openings (JOLTS Index)	3.828 M	3.85 M
WEDNESDAY
Consumer Credit (Mo. Change)	$19.6 B	$15.0 B
Gallup US Job Creation Index	22
Mortgage Activity	-3.7%
EIA Petroleum Status – Crude Oil Inventory	+0.4 M
-Gasoline Inventory	+0.8 M
China Trade Balance
Bank of England August Report
THURSDAY
Monthly Chain Store Sales
Bloomberg Consumer Comfort	-27
Weekly Jobless Claims	326K	336K
EIA Natural Gas Report	+59 Bcf
Bank of Japan Policy Statement
FRIDAY
Wholesale Trade Report (Inventories)	-0.5%	+0.4%

There’s not much on the economic schedule with the punch to affect stocks this week, save perhaps China trade data and the monthly chain store sales reports of retailers. Better Chinese export activity would imply improved European and American demand and help lift the global economic outlook. U.S. International Trade data this week will provide further color on the economic relationship with China and Europe. Keeping with the global theme, the Bank of England and Bank of Japan will have something to say about the perspectives of each regional bank and about the global economy. So, I suspect the global economy will draw the attention of the media and markets more than the U.S. state of affairs this week.

Still, investors will seek to glean something about the U.S. consumer when individual retailers report their monthly sales mostly on Thursday. Unfortunately, an increasing number of them are not reporting on a monthly basis any longer. It says something about the difficulties of the economy, because if retailers were sure of good news, they would be freely reporting it as often as possible. Included with those who will not be reporting is the most important consumer barometer and retailer in America, Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT).

Last week’s Employment Situation Report was mostly seen as negative, as reflected by the stock decline Friday. However, last week’s Jobless Claims Report showed significant improvement in regular layoff activity. Now, this may have something to do with the season, and we will get a clearer perspective of that this week. The reason for this is because the week brings several data points that measure job openings and U.S. job creation.

Corporate Events

Earnings season is not necessarily slowing on a volume basis, but the biggest of names have already come to the wire for the most part. Still, there are a slew of interesting ideas reporting results this week, including for instance Retail Properties of America (RPAI), Zillow (Z), First Solar (FSLR), Tesla Motors (TSLA) and McDonald’s (MCD).

HIGHLIGHTED EPS REPORTS
Company	Ticker
MONDAY
Tyson Foods	NYSE: TSN
American Science & Engineering	Nasdaq: ASEI
Fidelity National Financial	NYSE: FNF
Hillenbrand	NYSE: HI
Retail Properties of America	Nasdaq: RPAI
Hologic	Nasdaq: HOLX
McDermott Int’l	NYSE: MDR
Cutera	Nasdaq: CUTR
Jamba	Nasdaq: JMBA
Kindred Healthcare	NYSE: KND
TUESDAY
CVS Caremark	NYSE: CVS
Louisiana-Pacific	NYSE: LPX
Archer Daniels Midland	NYSE: ADM
Checkpoint Systems	NYSE: CKP
Tenet Healthcare	NYSE: THC
DISH Network	Nasdaq: DISH
Zillow	NYSE: Z
Sotheby’s	NYSE: BID
First Solar	Nasdaq: FSLR
Walt Disney	NYSE: DIS
WEDNESDAY
Duke Energy	NYSE: DUK
EOG Resources	NYSE: EOG
Time Warner	NYSE: TWX
Aqua America	NYSE: WTR
Demand Media	NYSE: DMD
Eagle Bulk Shipping	Nasdaq: EGLE
Tesla Motors	Nasdaq: TSLA
Green Mountain Coffee	Nasdaq: GMTR
MBIA	NYSE: MBI
St. Joe	NYSE: JOE
THURSDAY
TreeHouse Foods	NYSE: THS
Cincinnati Bell	NYSE: CBB
Dean Foods	NYSE: DF
Hecla Mining	NYSE: HL
The Gap	NYSE: GPS
T-Mobile	NYSE: PCS
McDonald’s	NYSE: MCD
Monster Beverage	Nasdaq: MNST
Molycorp	NYSE: MCP
NVIDIA	Nasdaq: NVDA
FRIDAY
Beacon Roofing	Nasdaq: BECN
Uranium Resources	Nasdaq: URRE
Mobile Mini	Nasdaq: MINI
Arkansas Best	Nasdaq: ABFS
Olympic Steel	Nasdaq: ZEUS
Federal Signal	NYSE: FSS
James River Coal	Nasdaq: JRCC
Mannkind	Nasdaq: MNKD
iGO	Nasdaq: IGOI
NRG Energy	NYSE: NRG

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