Apple, Microsoft, P&G earnings this week
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Weakness in Europe and a stronger dollar are the major concerns for corporate America going into this earnings season but that may apply more to outlooks than results for the third quarter.
Stocks are coming off a roller coaster week going into the heart of earnings season. Reports from heavyweights like Apple Inc. AAPL, +1.46% and 12 Dow components representing the telecom, industrials, tech, and consumer staples sectors are due.
Dow Jones Industrial Average component earnings this week
| Company/Ticker | Report Date | Estimated EPS | Estimated Revenue |
| IBM IBM, +1.23% | Oct. 20 | $4.32 | $23.38 billion |
| United Tech UTX, +2.32% | Oct. 21 | $1.81 | $16.16 billion |
| Coca-Cola KO, +0.75% | Oct. 21 | 53 cents | $12.12 billion |
| Verizon VZ, +0.84% | Oct. 21 | 90 cents | $31.57 billion |
| McDonalds MCD, +1.26% | Oct. 21 | $1.38 | $7.2 billion |
| Travelers TRV, +1.56% | Oct. 21 | $2.26 | $6 billion |
| Boeing BA, +2.45% | Oct. 22 | $1.98 | $22.97 billion |
| AT&T T, +1.31% | Oct. 22 | 64 cents | $33.21 billion |
| Microsoft MSFT, +2.08% | Oct. 23 | 50 cents | $22.01 billion |
| 3M MMM, +1.74% | Oct. 23 | $1.96 | $8.23 billion |
| Caterpillar CAT, +1.94% | Oct. 23 | $1.33 | $13.23 billion |
| P&G PG, +1.25% | Oct. 24 | $1.07 | $20.79 billion |
Even with a big rally on Friday, stocks still finished lower last week with the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +1.63% and the S&P 500 Index SPX, +1.29% both off 1% and the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +0.97% down 0.4%.
While a rally in the U.S. dollar DXY, +0.28% over the third quarter has been a concern coming into this earnings season, the effects may play out more in the fourth quarter than the third.
“If dollar strength continues we’ll likely see the impact in the fourth quarter, but the third quarter was solid overall,” said Randy Frederick, managing director of trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab.
Weakness in Europe was also one of the most cited concerns of companies in their earnings conference calls so far, according to John Butters, senior earnings analyst at FactSet.
Schwab’s Frederick suggested that it might be wise to focus on companies that are more dependent on domestic sales. On the brighter side, Frederick said that the U.S. appears to be decoupling from Europe now.
Frederick said there’s no single catalyst pressuring markets. While economic data has been soft as of late, the market has done pretty well in spite of it. He estimates that about half the pressure on the market has come from challenges in Europe, falling interest rates, and the spread of the Ebola virus. That pressure reached a high point this past week.
Investor fear reached levels not seen in three years as the CBOE Volatility Index VIX, -12.74% briefly passed above 30 this past Thursday, its highest level since November 2011, and stocks saw a massive selloff.
In addition to more than a third of the Dow 30 reporting this week, another 110 companies on the S&P 500 report earnings. All together, about a third of the index’s market cap.
Notable S&P 500 earnings this week
| Report Date | Company/Ticker (Estimates EPS / Revenue) |
| Oct. 20 | Apple ($1.31 / $40 bln); Texas Instruments TXN, +0.18% (71c / $3.46 bln); Chipotle CMG, -0.66% ($3.84 / $1.06 bln) |
| Oct. 21 | Yahoo YHOO, +0.88% (32c / $1.05 bln); Kimberly-Clark KMB, +1.16% ($1.54 / $5.35 bln); Intuitive Surgical ISRG, +3.01% ($3.10 / $515.4 mln) |
| Oct. 22 | Biogen Idec BIIB, +1.31% ($3.45 / $2.48 bln), Abbott Labs ABT, +2.18% (59c / $5.6 bln), Dow Chemical DOW, +2.88% (67c / $14.32 bln) |
| Oct. 23 | Amazon.com AMZN, +0.26% (75c loss / $20.84 bln), Comcast CMCSA, +2.20% (71c / $16.83 bln), Union Pacific UNP, +2.28% ($1.51 / $6.1 bln), General Motors GM, +1.00% (97c / $38.72 bln) |
| Oct. 24 | Bristol-Myers Squibb BMY, +2.44% (42c / $3.82 bln), Colgate-Palmolive CL, +0.98% (75c / $4.44 bln), Ford F, +0.29% (24c / $34.02 bln) |
