The Week Ahead

Thanks to Jim Cramer, Value Line, MarketSmith, and Barron's, we are well read for the week ahead.

Cramer suggests keeping an eye on PCLN Priceline earnings on Monday as a tell for the travel industry. Barring any account adjustments we think they should beat earnings which maybe a little perk to the market. He also want to hear what SWN has to say about the Natural Gas market. A few of you have asked me about Nat Gas in the last few weeks. You can go to Yahoo Finance on Tuesday and hear the earnings call report and that should give you a lot of intel about what the future holds for Nat Gas.

He does a nice job of positioning AZO Autozone as they report on Tuesday. Cramer positions them as a stock to own and as an indicator of the entire automotive sector. I almost agree with him. Autozone has some great fundamentals and a nice growth story. It is exactly 5% above a recent buy point of $343.90. One of the CAN SLIM rules is not to buy a stock more than 5% a clear buy point. This would be one that if you did your homework and liked what you saw, watch it close. When the market adjusts, this one will move quickly and most probably down.

Cramer wants a beat from DPZ Domino's. It would help it break out of the 35-40 range its been trading in since mid December. IBD has a soft rating of 77 on the stock. COST Costco reports on Wednesday and Cramer asks a great question. Will they pass on the creeping cost from inflation or eat them to keep the lines long? The gross revenue numbers announced should tell us. Also they do sell a lot of gas. What are they doing with those price increases? Here is my guess. With the consumer sentiment improving and employment starting to better traffic is probably down and their margins are squeezed. Look for a miss and a tumble of 3-5%.

Cramer rightly advises we watch SPLS Staples this week just to see how Small Business America is doing. He is on the mark again by asking us to pay attention to Kroeger's reporting to see how middle America is handling the slight creep in inflation. Is Kroeger passing on those costs, are sales up because people are not eating out as much. This is all good information to know to "feel" the overall market. Yelp launches its IPO on Friday. I just started playing around in yelp to see what others have said about our products and our dive centers and resorts. I also wanted to see what people say about products and places I know. It is an interesting website and it can be beneficial when shopping. Out of 34 ratings for Hanna's (spelled it right), only two were underwhelming citing cost as the major issue. Peasants. I cannot speak to YELP as an investment, but feel that it will suffer the IPO bloat and then correction later on. Read the S1 and do a lot of homework and use ONLY Vegas money of you dare.

Ok that's the fluff for the week, let's see what data points we have. We have 10 relevant economic data points this coming week. I will tell you all of them but keep my comments focused on the ones I feel are really important. For you research hounds I would suggest looking at all of them.

Pending Home Sales

Dallas Fed Survey

Durable Goods

This reports Tuesday and most are guessing a drop from two hot months. The consensus at the moment is -.7%. We are thinking flat to .2%. We will see. A big miss will shake up the market especially if oil continues up and if the Euro slips. All three could be the beginning of a market correction.

Th S&P Case Shiller Report

Consumer Confidence

Tuseday will tell us if the dip in January was temporary or a real read on what people think about the rising prices. The guess is we will see an improvement in the number. We agree.

GDP

Look for a boring status quo flat number on Wednesday.

Chicago PMI

Motor Vehicle Sales

Jobless Claims

This was flat last week at 351,000. The guess is a slight bump to 354,000. Our guess is a better number below 350,000. Mr. Market should be happy.

Personal Income

Income flat, Spending up a tad, and the price index, up a bit.

ISM Mfg Index

The predictions for Thursday reports are a teeny tiny bump to the upside. We think there will be a pleasant surprise based upon rail shipments and truck tonnage.

Construction Spending.

So our guess for the end of the week is another positive week of a 1% gain. The Green Flag should be waving next Friday.