2nd-Quarter Profit Should Be Hot

This week kicks off the second-quarter earnings reporting season, with Wall Street expecting hot stuff from the nation’s top companies. Profits of Standard & Poor’s 500 index companies are seen rising 26.3% on average over last year’s quarter. That would match the blockbuster results of the first quarter, says earnings tracking service First Call/Thomson Financial, which compiled the estimates. “We are setting up for a good week,” said Peter Coolidge, senior equity trader at Brean Murray & Co. At least four components of the 30-stock Dow Jones industrial average are scheduled to announce their earnings this week: J.P. Morgan & Co., Alcoa Inc., International Paper Co. and General Electric Co. First out of the gate among technology companies will be Internet media portal Yahoo Inc., wireless communications and semiconductor maker Motorola Inc., computer maker Gateway Inc. and biotechnology company Biogen Inc. A recent spate of profit warnings has put investors on alert for less-than-rosy results this quarter. But Chuck Hill of First Call said the number of confessionals, which made up about 59% of the pre-announcements so far, is in line with the average. The full effect of the Fed’s six rate hikes since June 1999 will not be reflected in earnings until later this year, he predicted.