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The Week Ahead: Nail Down These Themes

Here are some questions to ask as the numbers roll in.
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If you thought 2014 would be the year of the stock-picker, your view has been confirmed by the March-quarter results we've received thus far. Just last week, Morgan Stanley (MS) and General Electric (GE) posted solid figures, while Google (GOOG) and IBM (IBM) missed expectations.

Taking a step back and looking at data from FactSet, we find that, of the 83 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings so far, 66% beat the mean analyst estimate. That's below recent trends. To compound things, a total of nine companies have issued negative earnings-per-share guidance, against six positive releases.

Yep, 2014 is going to be a choosey year when it comes to stocks, so you'll need to tune in and fill out your investing mosaic with data points and management commentary. There will be no shortage on that latter item this week: More than 1,100 earnings reports are set to hit in the next five days. During times like these, what's key is aggregating the commentary to find a true signal, rather than allowing yourself to be distracted by the noise produced by all of these simultaneous reports.

To help you get a leg up, here are some questions you should be asking in the coming days.

• Chipotle (CMG) warned of coming price increases: Beef, coffee and other inputs are all on the rise. Will we hear the same from Cheesecake Factory (CAKE), Starbucks (SBUX) and Burger King (BKW)?

• Then there are the homebuilders. We'll get existing- and new-home-sales data for March, but was there a pick-up in activity for such names as D.R. Horton (DHI), Ryland Group (RYL), M/I Homes (MHO), Pulte Group (PHM)? What are the backlog trends? Moreover, is supporting strength offered by Ethan Allen Interiors (ETH), USG (USG), Masco (MAS) and Whirlpool (WHR)?

• What's the prognosis on defense-related spending? Lockheed Martin (LMT), Northrop Grumman (NOC), Raytheon (RTN), General Dynamics (GD) and a few others will help fill in that picture.

• Are we seeing any slowdown in the move to mobile? Comments from Qualcomm (QCOM), Facebook (FB), Microsoft (MSFT), Citrix (CTRX), Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) and others should help answer that question. My gut says "no," but the data and commentary will let us know for sure.

• Are we seeing any improvement in the emerging markets? That, as well as currency-related questions, will be answered when Procter & Gamble (PG), Colgate-Palmolive (CL), Kimberly Clark (KMB) and others issues their quarterly results this week.

• Is there more room to run in the manufacturing rebound? For an answer to this question, pay attention to commentary from Illinois Tool Works (ITW), Rush Enterprises (RUSHA), Idex (IEX), Ingersoll-Rand (IR), Ryder Systems (R), Caterpillar (CAT), 3M (MMM) and several others.

• Does the domestic auto rebound have more room to run? What's the tone of the European automotive market? These are good questions, and answers will be had from both General Motors (GM) and Ford (F) this week -- along with a number of key suppliers.

• We saw a bump in March retail sales even after adjusting for monthly auto sales. Where did consumers part with their dollars? Clues will be handed out by the likes of Under Armour (UA), VF Corp. (VFC), Harley-Davidson (HOG), Apple (AAPL), Polaris (PII), Deckers Outdoor (DECK), Cabela's (CAB). There will also be some general commentary from Amazon (AMZN).

Those are just some of the questions that will be answered in the week ahead -- I'm sure you can easily come up with more of your own. To help, here's a more detailed view on what's coming at you in the week ahead.

_________________

Economic Calendar

Monday, April 21

  • Leading Indicators (March)

____

Tuesday, April 22

  • Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Housing Price Index (February)
  • Existing-Home Sales (March)

____

Wednesday, April 23

  • HSBC China Flash Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI)
  • Markit Eurozone Flash Composite PMI
  • Markit U.S. Flash Manufacturing PMI
  • Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Mortgage Index (Weekly)
  • New-Home Sales (March)
  • Crude Inventories

____

Thursday, April 24

  • Initial and Continuing Jobless Claims (Weekly)
  • Durable Orders (March)
  • Natural Gas Inventories (Weekly)

____

Friday, April 25

  • Markit U.S. Flash Services PMI
  • Michigan Sentiment Index -- Final (April)

_________________

Earnings Calendar

Monday, April 21

  • Halliburton Co. (HAL)
  • Hasbro Inc. (HAS)
  • Kimberly Clark Corp. (KMB)
  • Netflix (NFLX)
  • Rambus Inc. (RMBS)

____

Tuesday, April 22

  • Arch Coal (ACI)
  • Amgen (AMGN)
  • A.O. Smith Corp. (AOS)
  • The Bank of New York (BK)
  • Cubist Pharmaceuticals (CBST)
  • Comcast Corp. (CMCSA)
  • Cree, Inc. (CREE)
  • Carlisle Companies (CSL)
  • Harley-Davidson Inc. (HOG)
  • Intuitive Surgical (ISRG)
  • Illinois Tool Works (ITW)
  • Juniper Networks (JNPR)
  • Janus Capital Group (JNS)
  • Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT)
  • Medidata Solutions (MDSO)
  • Philips Electronics (PHG)
  • Pentair Inc. (PNR)
  • Rush Enterprises (RUSHA)
  • Sonic Automotive (SAH)
  • Skechers USA (SKX)
  • Skyworks Solutions (SWKS)
  • AT&T Corp. (T)
  • Vascular Solutions (VASC)
  • VMware (VMW)
  • Xerox Corp. (XRX)

____

Wednesday, April 23

  • Apple Inc. (AAPL)
  • TD Ameritrade Holding (AMTD)
  • Angie's List (ANGI)
  • Air Products & Chemicals (APD)
  • ARM Holdings (ARMH)
  • Boeing Co. (BA)
  • B/E Aerospace (BEAV)
  • The CheesecakeFactory (CAKE)
  • Chicago Bridge & Iron (CBI)
  • Citrix Systems (CTXS)
  • Delta Airlines (DAL)
  • Dow Chemical Corp. (DOW)
  • Dr. Pepper Snapple (DPS)
  • Brinker International (EAT)
  • EMC Corp. (EMC)
  • E*Trade Financial (ETFC)
  • Ethan Allen Interiors (ETH)
  • Facebook (FB)
  • F5 Networks (FFIV)
  • Fortinet, Inc. (FTNT)
  • Gannett Co. (GCI)
  • General Dynamics (GD)
  • Idex Corp. (IEX)
  • Ingersoll-Rand (IR)
  • iRobot Corp. (IRBT)
  • Johnson Controls (JCI)
  • Lam Research Corp. (LRCX)
  • Motorola Solutions (MSI)
  • Northrop Grumman (NOC)
  • Procter & Gamble (PG)
  • Polaris Industries (PII)
  • Packaging Corp. of America (PKG)
  • Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM)
  • Ryder Systems (R)
  • Reynolds American (RAI)
  • Safeway Inc. (SWY)
  • Thermo Fischer Scientific (TMO)
  • TriQuint Semiconductor (TQNT)
  • Tractor Supply (TSCO)
  • Tupperware Brands (TUP)
  • Texas Instruments (TXI)
  • Westinghouse Air Brake (WAB)
  • Xilinx Inc. (XLNX)
  • Zynga Inc. (ZNGA)

____

Thursday, April 24

  • American Airlines (AAL)
  • Amazon.com (AMZN)
  • ASM International (ASMI)
  • Brink's Company (BCO)
  • Benchmark Electronics (BHE)
  • Baidu.com Inc. (BIDU)
  • Peabody Energy (BTU)
  • Cabela's Inc. (CAB)
  • Caterpillar Inc. (CAT)
  • Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE)
  • Cabot Microelectronics (CCMP)
  • Cerner Corp. (CERN)
  • Churchill Downs (CHDN)
  • Cirrus Logic (CRUS)
  • Deckers Outdoor Corp. (DECK)
  • DuPont Fabros (DFT)
  • D.R. Horton (DHI)
  • Delphi Automotive (DLPH)
  • Dunkin' Brands (DNKN)
  • DeVry Inc. (DV)
  • Freeport McMoRan (FCX)
  • Flowserve (FLS)
  • General Motors (GM)
  • GATX Corp. (GMT)
  • GrafTech International (GTI)
  • Hanesbrands (HBI)
  • Starwood Hotels & Resorts (HOT)
  • The Hershey Company (HSY)
  • IMAX Corp. (IMAX)
  • Itron (ITRI)
  • JetBlue Airways (JBLU)
  • Kaiser Aluminum (KALU)
  • KKR & Co. (KKR)
  • Lorillard Inc. (LO)
  • Logitech International (LOGI)
  • Southwest Airlines (LUV)
  • Las Vegas Sands (LVS)
  • M/I Homes (MHO)
  • Mead Johnson Nutrition (MJN)
  • Mellanox Technologies (MLNX)
  • 3M Corp. (MMM)
  • Altria Group (MO)
  • Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)
  • Nasdaq Stock Market (NDAQ)
  • Nielsen Holdings (NLSN)
  • Novartis AG (NVS)
  • NXP Semiconductors (NXPI)
  • The New York Times (NYT)
  • Pandora Media (P)
  • Pulte Homes (PHM)
  • Piper Jaffray (PJC)
  • PerkinElmer (PKI)
  • Potash Corp. (POT)
  • Regal Entertainment (RGC)
  • Raytheon (RTN)
  • Ryland Group (RYL)
  • Starbucks Corp. (SBUX)
  • Sonus Networks (SONS)
  • SunPower Corp. (SPWR)
  • Stanley Works (SWK)
  • Synaptics (SYNA)
  • Terex Corp. (TEX)
  • Timken Co. (TKR)
  • Time Warner Cable (TWC)
  • Titan International (TWI)
  • Under Armour (UA)
  • United Continental Holdings (UAL)
  • United Parcel Service (UPS)
  • USG Corp. (USG)
  • Visa Inc. (V)
  • Vasco Data Security International (VDSI)
  • VeriSign (VRSN)
  • Yandex NV (YNDX)

____

Friday, April 25

  • AON Corp. (AON)
  • Briggs & Stratton (BGG)
  • Burger King Worldwide (BKW)
  • Colgate-Palmolive (CL)
  • Cobra Electronics (COBR)
  • NTT DoCoMo (DCM)
  • Eastman Chemical (EMN)
  • FordMotor Company (F)
  • Flir Systems (FLIR)
  • Lear Corp. (LEA)
  • Masco Corp. (MAS)
  • Newmont Mining (NEM)
  • State Street Corp. (STT)
  • Tyco International (TYC)
  • VF Corp. (VFC)
  • Volvo AB (VOLVY)
  • Whirlpool Corp. (WHR)
  • Weyerhaeuser Co. (WY)

At the time of publication, the Thematic Growth Portfolio, which Versace manages, was long MDSO, GM, QCOM, PG and FB.