More Earnings Reports, Early GDP Outlook Due

Wall Street is expected to wrap up the week little changed as investors juggle disappointment over a pile-up of dour profit forecasts with an urge to dabble in a market at compelling lows.

Roughly 2,300 corporate earnings reports will pound Wall Street this week, marking the most hectic week of the reporting season, according to research firm First Call/Thomson Financial. But many investors have surrendered hope for a speedy pick-up in corporate profits after software titan Microsoft Corp. warned last week of sluggish results in a prolonged economic slump.

Economic data will offer little balm to investors aggravated by harsh profit outlooks. Many economists had been bracing for the nation’s first quarterly contraction in gross domestic product in eight years. But an advance reading of GDP due Friday is expected to show fractional annualized growth on the quarter after the Commerce Department last week reported a narrower-than-expected trade deficit. Reuters

Other economic reports this week:

* Tuesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is likely to repeat his forecast of 2% growth in the second half of the year when he gives his economic report to the Senate Banking Committee. The Fed chairman delivered the report to the House last week.

* Wednesday, the National Assn. of Realtors will report on sales of new single-family homes in June.

* Thursday, the Commerce Department will report on June orders for durable goods. They rose 2.9% in May.

* Thursday, the Labor Department will report on employment costs during the second quarter. The so-called employment cost index rose 1.1% during the first quarter as businesses grappled with higher health-care costs.