HP Among Firms to Report Earnings

Though the flood of quarterly earnings in recent weeks has begun to ebb, a handful of major companies are scheduled to report their numbers this week. Semiconductor equipment maker Applied Materials and managed-care company WellPoint Health Networks Inc. will report Tuesday, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and Campbell Soup on Wednesday and Hewlett Packard Co. and Dell Computer Corp. on Thursday. “The market will remain under pressure, and we are going to begin to see very shortly another slew of pre-announcements for the first quarter and year,� said Stanley Nabi, Credit Suisse Asset Management chairman of the investment policy committee. “Look at where we have traveled in the last six or seven weeks, when the idea began in earnest that earnings would not be great,� Nabi said. “Instead of 10 to 15% growth, it went to 7 to 8. Now it is zero. I think it will be minus 5 to 10%, and that will begin to show itself in the next few weeks.�