Corporate Earnings Season Gets Underway

Earnings season heats up in earnest this week, and although the cards have been dealt for companies’ fourth-quarter results, investors are anxiously awaiting a peek at corporate America’s hand for 2003.

Analysts predict operating earnings for the companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index will rise 11.1% in the fourth quarter, a forecast that is down significantly from the gain of nearly 20% they anticipated Oct. 1, according to Thomson First Call.

A number of technology heavyweights, including IBM Corp., Intel Corp., Microsoft Corp. and Sun Microsystems, probably will steal the spotlight in the earnings parade.

Some of Nasdaq’s best-known names -- Apple Computer Inc., Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Juniper Networks Inc. and Yahoo Inc. -- also will issue earnings reports.

Financial services firms will be in focus too, as results stream out from Bank of America Corp., Capital One Financial Corp., Comerica Inc., FleetBoston Financial Corp., PNC Financial Services Group Inc. and Wachovia Corp., among others.

General Motors Corp. and General Electric Co. also are likely to catch the eyes of Wall Street investors with their results this week.

Any optimism in corporate forecasts this week could help give stocks a boost. But analysts said they won’t be holding their breath for much more clarity on the profit outlook.

“It’s still going to be pretty cloudy,” said Charles White, president of Avatar Associates. “Anybody who has been optimistic has typically been proven to be incorrect.”