Market Should See Calmer Waters Ahead, Analysts Say

Wall Street is looking forward to more gains by the stock market this week, with solid earnings and a strong finish Friday encouraging fund managers and investors to believe the worst might be behind them. In a wild week when on Wednesday the Dow Jones industrial average closed below the psychologically important 10,000 level for the first time since mid-March, two straight days of impressive gains in technology shares helped drive both the Dow and Nasdaq higher for the week. The blue-chip Dow average ended at 10,226.59, up slightly, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index finished at 3,483.14, up a little more than 5% for the week. Many S&P; 500 companies have already reported results for the quarter. However, key technology and telecommunications companies will be closely watched for their quarterly earnings. See accompanying chart for some of the U.S. companies scheduled to report quarterly results this week. “As far as pre-announcements, most of the damage has been done for now. And there seems to be a chorus of people saying from here on out, it should be positive until the end of the year,” said Alex Valecillo, a portfolio manager with National City Investment Management Co., in Cleveland. The next few weeks still could be volatile, as tax-loss selling is completed. But investors, recalling last year’s post-October rally, are expected to dip back into technology stocks.