SDI Week Ahead Report, 5/4/09
Monday, May 4, 11:49 AM ET

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Good morning, I’m ANGELA SAVUCCI, with the “Week Ahead Market Report” for May 4, 2009.

U.S. stocks are up by half a percent in pre-market action this morning. Earnings season rolls on with about one in six companies in the S&P 500 index reporting this week.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will testify before the Joint Economic Committee on Capitol Hill Tuesday morning. On Thursday, Chairman Bernanke will speak about bank supervision at a Chicago Fed Bank conference.

Time is running out for Citigroup (NYSE:C), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), and two other banks as they all work to raise tens of billions of dollars in fresh capital. The banks are working to convince the Treasury Department that they can pass the stress tests to be released late on Thursday. A meeting is scheduled for today between the banks and the Treasury to discuss the status of their stress tests.

Fears over swine flu have hit airline share prices, wiping out most of April's rise. An industry spokesman indicated that combined net losses for airlines in the first quarter reached $1 billion. Airline shares bounced back a bit on Friday with American Airlines parent AMR Corp. (AMR) up 8.6 percent, Continental Airlines (CAL) up 4 percent, U.S. Airways (NYSE:LCC) up 5.8 percent, and United parent UAL (UAUA), up 4.9 percent. Good news on the swine flu front this week could drive airlines share prices higher.

The economic release drawing the most attention this week is Friday's unemployment report, with the nation's jobless rate expected to climb from 8.5 percent in March to 8.7 percent for April.

Another important release is expected from the European Central Bank meeting on Thursday. Some analysts expect a 25 basis point benchmark rate cut and a possible shift away from conventional monetary policy.

Also on Thursday, preliminary first quarter productivity will be released by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Labor Department will publish the weekly initial jobless claims.

Companies reporting this week include Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:CHK), Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S), Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE:ADM), Healthsouth (NYSE:HLS), Martin Marietta (NYSE:MLM), Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE:APC), Transocean (NYSE:RIG), Yamana Gold (NYSE:AUY), Kinross Gold (NYSE:KCG) and Thomson-Reuters (NYSE:TRI).

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE:TEVA) is expected to report 68 cents per share on Tuesday, before the start of trading.

Walt Disney Company’s (NYSE:DIS) consensus earnings estimate is 41 cents per share. Disney is scheduled to report on Tuesday after the close of trading.

California Pizza Kitchen (CPKI) will report earnings on Thursday. The company expects earnings to total between 9 and 10 cents per share. The company has topped expectations during 3 out of the last 4 quarters.

Expectations are high for Goldcorp (NYSE:GG) as analysts anticipate earnings of 12 cents per share. Goldcorp is also scheduled to report on Thursday