Earnings Early next Week

Now that we are hot in heavy into earnings season I will break out some of the more interesting reports into smaller parcels. Keep in mind markets are closed Monday, before we resume our race to 0.00 on the Dow Tuesday.

Monday
Fund Holding: Indian bank HDFC (HDB) - I expect more good, solid growth without 'financial innovation' that appears necessary for US banks to manufacture fake earnings so their CEOs can get $150M pay packages and yearly $20M-$30M bonuses. HDFC and ICICI Bank (IBN) will be powerhouses over the coming decades, and one day can overpay their intellectually corrupt CEOs as well. Can't wait; it's worked wonders in the US. If they can only convince Indian regulators to stop watching over them, since "we will police ourselves!" - that also has worked great in the US. I hold very little of either right now since I took some profits while they were holding up and rolled the money into other names that have been pole axed.

Indian IT source and Business Process Outsourcing Satyam (SAY) - this group was a darling in 2004-2006 and is a classic example of why, with the changing pace of industry, it is very hard to buy and "hold" anything for 5 years anymore. This group has been at best dead money and a loser for most in the past year - the sharply rising Indian currency along with rising labor costs is squeezing profits. Heck in a few years, US white collar workers are going to be cheaper than Indian white collar workers. Cheap dollar! Always a silver lining!

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Tuesday
Ambac (ABK) - Dive! Dive! Dive!

Fund Holding: Apple (AAPL) - Alleluia! (insert Cramer sound effect here). I expect a massive Christmas season and a lot of analysts saying "I don't care if you beat by $0.30! No one can afford anything anymore!" I still think this is a $250+ stock by end of 2008*.

* Please note the above price target assumes the Dow Jones Industrial Average is > 2000 by Dec 31 2008.

Ok back to your regularly scheduled earnings outlook

Americredit (ACF) - auto finance company serving subprime customers. Need I say more?

Railroads Canadian National (CNI), CSX Corp (CSX), Norfolk Southern (NSC) - more talk of slowing economy

More banks, Bank of America (BAC), Fifth Third (FITB), Keycorp (KEY), National City (NCC), Wachovia (WB)

Fund Holding: Jacobs Engineering (JEC) - a great infrastructure company, but surely some analyst will claim they are double counting sales and that their backlog only grew at a 46.5% year over year rate, well below the analysts expectation of 46.387531254%. This will drop the stock at least 90% on fears of US slowdown and subprime exposure. CEO will ask, flabbergasted - "What subprime exposure??" - analysts will answer "It must be there somewhere, no company can do well in the coming 'End of Days' I've now modeled after missing the slowdown the past 9 months. Now 'fess up!"

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) - after reporting a solid quarter some analyst will find a line item somewhere deep in appendix 13.2.1B showing dandruff shampoo fell off the cliff, dropping from an annualized growth rate of 10.87% last year to 10.75% this year. They will claim people cannot buy shampoo anymore and the "consumer is dead". The stock will drop 0.009% since it's still a safe haven.

Precision Castparts (PCP) - a former (ahem) safe haven aerospace industrial name - darling of 2007

Texas Instruments (TXN) - a slower growth semi name.

UAL (UAUA) - hey its an airline stock. These are the growth stocks of 2008!