The Week Ahead: The market is beginning to struggle with earnings reports from big name companies led primarily from technology related companies. More numbers from a broad list of stocks are due this week as well. Watch Monday as the leading economic indicators for December from the Conference Board are out. Tuesday night the State of the Union address by the President is delivered. Wednesday, government reports on energy supplies are released while Thursday brings the December existing home sales figures.


Stocks to Watch: Company earnings to focus on include the DOW stocks of Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), McDonald's (MCD), AT&T (T ), and Caterpillar (CAT), also technology related stocks like Texas Instruments (TXN), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo (YHOO), and (EBAY). Of these JNJ and MCD appear to have the healthiest trends. On a down note, Coldwater Creek (CWTR) lowered earnings guidance as the stock nears oversold levels and on the upside Schlumberger (SLB) beat estimates and received a strong buy from Standard & Poors.


Special Note: The volatility index (VIX) continues its trading pattern swinging several points at a time and still represents an opportunity to hedge by using call options. Its historic low levels represents some of the most complacent times seen in two decades. On the other hand corporate insiders are anything but complacent as they are now selling their own shares more furiously than at any time in the last decade. Some sell/buy ratios are at there highest levels since 1987.


Commentary provided by Barry Ward, Registered Principal, NobleTrading.com, Inc.

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