Discouraging Week Expected for Earnings

This is one of the busiest weeks of the earnings reporting period, with roughly 160 companies in the S&P; 500 slated to release their results, according to earnings tracking firm Thomson Financial/First Call.

Third-quarter earnings are expected to fall 22.4%, their biggest quarterly drop since the second quarter of 1991, Thomson Financial said.

“I don’t think we’re going to get anything that’s real encouraging,” Jeff Kleintop, chief investment strategist at PNC Advisors said, although he added that most companies’ forecasts had already been discounted by Wall Street.

Blue-chip companies reporting this week include financial services giant American Express, 3M, Eastman Kodak and DuPont.

In the technology and telecommunications sectors, Compaq Computer, JDS Uniphase and Lucent Technologies are set to release quarterly figures.