Earnings Monday - Tuesday

Last week was the traditional launch of earnings season, but this week is when the onslaught really begins. Due to large amount of names to review, I'll break down the week into smaller pieces for the next 3 weeks or so...

Names I am looking at for Monday and Tuesday

Monday
Eaton (ETN) - this is a one of those quiet manufacturing type of companies - in the wake of GE I will be curious to see if we see similar issues in other names such as Honeywell (HON), Unitech Technologies (UTX) and the like. GE has so much business that is financial related it might be more of an outlier in terms of the issues it faced, but if we start to see weakness in the other more pure play mfg plays it's time to worry. Remember, the only thing holding up the market right now is international strength of these multinationals (ironic isn't it?). I still believe international markets are booming but they are indeed due for a slowdown - when China slows from 12% GDP growth to 8% how will the market take it?

Philips Electronics (PHG) - another large international based multinational

Tuesday
CSX Corporation (CSX) - I contend people are mistaking the boom in rails due to international growth (hauling out our farm products, coal, fertilizers, and the like) for a "sign that the US economy is going to rebound any minute now". The rails benefit from the wealth effect being created overseas by governments and people - wanting our resources. But hopeful bulls, straining for any signs of strength to offset all the weakness, point to the strength in transports as a reason for glee. Remember folks, the rest of the world is moving on without us. They won't be immune to our slowdown but when you are a creditor and have savings life is a lot easier than the opposite.

Infosys (INFY) - these Indian outsource companies are just fascinating to me - they used to be the darlings of the market but as Indian white collar demand higher wages, and the rupee explodes higher in value (as opposed to US pesos) - more and more of the benefit to outsource to India is being lost. From an economist standpoint this is just such an interesting thing to see play out. If the US dollar continues to free fall, I kid you not - the US is going to be a great place to locate plants to take advantage of "low cost wages" with people "who speak English" well - the same reasons we used to outsource to India. Ironic isn't it?

Intel (INTC) - still enough of a bellweather to move markets

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) - another bellweather who like GE just never misses with all its moving parts and various businesses. I'll be looking to see signs of inflation and future price increases in their product lines which will continue to rage against the US lower and middle class.

Washington Mutual (WM) - a little less interesting now that they got the $7 Billion (at a huge cost) but the first of our major financials to report.