The Week Ahead: A highly charged geopolitical environment coupled with an earnings warning from Dell Computer has investors on edge as the month of July comes to a close. Influencing this trend will be Tuesday's existing home sales and consumer confidence figures, Thurday's durable goods orders and new home sales, and Friday's 2nd quarter GDP along with July's final consumer sentiment index.

Stocks to Watch: Many blue chip company's will be reporting earnings this week.
They include: MMM, MO, AXP, BA, XOM, DD, MCD, and MRK. Of this group, MO, XOM, and MRK appear to have positive near term upside technical patterns. Also of note MSFT confirmed it will offer its new Zune family of products by Christmas to compete with Apple Computer's (AAPL) i-Pod device. Both company's have displayed good upside patterns since there recent lows.

Special Note: Dell Computer's long term slide since early 05' could be signalling trouble ahead for the markets later this year into 07'. Dell acted as a barometer for stocks reaching bottoms in Dec. 2000 and Sept. 2001 9 to 12 months ahead of market lows in the major indexes in 2001 and 2002. Look for a continuation of the current downtrend in the major indexes with the possibility of a tradable bottom later this week or early next ahead of a highly anticipated August 8th Fed meeting.

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