Monday
The new trading weeks gets revved up with
Avis Budget Group (NYSE: CAR) and
Ford (NYSE: F) pulling in for their quarterly
checkups.
There's a lot riding on Avis Budget. The car-rental
specialist has been a 25-bagger for the lucky investors who
snagged shares at its
$0.34-per-share bottomin March. Analysts see it earning
more than that in its latest quarter, and it had better not
disappoint.
Ford has also had a healthy run since the market's rally
began. How successful was "Cash for Clunkers" in clearing out
showrooms? Wall Street expects a substantially narrower
deficit here than what the automaker delivered a year
ago.
Tuesday
Pitney Bowes (NYSE: PBI) "posts" its
third-quarter results, and they won't be much to write home
about. The pros expect earnings to dip from $0.67 a share
last year to only $0.54 a share this time around. It is still
an earnings report worth checking in on, because Pitney Bowes
should be an early indicator on improvement in the corporate
space. If companies are sending out more metered mail -- as
long as we're not just talking about collection agencies and
bank foreclosure notices -- it's a good sign for the
economy.
Wednesday
Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) reports on Wednesday.
It will be interesting to see whether its cable subscriber
numbers are growing. Given the bumpy economy, telcos that are
jumping into digital television with cutthroat pricing, and
content creators that are adopting ad-supported
digital-streaming initiatives, it can't be easy being the
country's largest cable provider these days.
Another subscriber service under the microscope will be
Vonage (NYSE: VG). The Web-based telephone
service has had its challenges over the years, but it offers
a compelling value proposition.
Thursday
Satellite radio tunes in come Thursday morning, as
Sirius XM Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI) beams its
quarterly report. The broadcaster should post a narrower
deficit as it closes in on outright profitability. After
shedding net subscribers during the first and second
quarters, investors will be interested to see whether the
company is gaining or losing accounts at this point.
Rosetta Stone (NYSE: RST) also steps up to
the podium. As one of the few companies to go public this
year, the foreign-language educator needs to earn its IPO.
The stock gave back most of its post-IPO gains when it
provided
disappointing guidancethis summer. If it falls short on
Friday, I wonder how many languages it can apologize in. Continued... |