MARKET SNAPSHOT: Apple Earnings, Fed Vie For Investor Attention This Week

By Wallace Witkowski, MarketWatch

Microsoft, Google, Facebook also reporting results

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Investor attention will be divided between earnings from tech heavyweights like Apple Inc. and Microsoft Inc. and the Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee this week.

Stocks managed to hold on to weekly gains even as Friday derailed a four-day winning streak on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) and the S&P 500 index (SPX). The Dow finished up 0.9% on the week, and the S&P 500 gained 1.6%. The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) closed up 0.2% Friday for a 2.7% gain on the week.

Sour news--more likely from earnings than from the Fed--this week could put those gains in jeopardy. Plus, markets will have to deal with any possible fallout from Sunday's election in Greece.

"Earnings have been a little on the weak side to start," said Anthony Valeri, investment strategist for LPL Financial. "So, growth rates are a little behind what was expected, and that's surprised a few folks."

Apple will be carrying the weight of the tech sector on its shoulders on Tuesday. Tech sector earnings are estimated to grow 3.8% for the fourth-quarter, but, if you take Apple earnings away, expected earnings growth for the sector plummets to 0.1%, according to John Butters, senior earnings analyst at FactSet.

Eleven Dow 30 components also will report quarterly results along with nearly 30% of the S&P 500 index.

Notable earnings this week

 
Report date     Company Name/Ticker (FactSet EPS / revenue estimates) 
Mon., Jan. 26   Microsoft  (71 cents / $26.3 billion)Texas Instruments Inc.  (69 cents / $3.27 billion) 
Tues, Jan. 27   Apple  ($2.59 / $67.31 billion)Yahoo Inc.  (29 cents / $1.19 billion)Pfizer Inc.  (53 cents / $12.92 billion)AT&T Inc.  (54 cents / $34.29 billion)Procter & Gamble Co.  ($1.13 / $20.6 billion)Amgen Inc.  ($2.05 / $5.2 billion)United Technologies Corp.  ($1.62 / $17.13 billion) 
Weds., Jan. 28  Facebook Inc.  (48 cents / $3.78 billion)Qualcomm Inc.  ($1.26 / $6.94 billion)Boeing Co.  ($2.11 / $23.93 billion) 
Thurs., Jan. 29 Google Inc.  ($7.11 / $14.76 billion)Amazon.com Inc.  (18 cents / $29.68 billion) Visa Inc.  ($2.49 / $3.34 billion) 
Fri., Jan. 30   Chevron Corp.  ($1.69 / $35.87 billion)AbbVie Inc.  (85 cents / $5.35 billion)Altria Group Inc.  (66 cents / $4.53 billion) 
 

On Wednesday, the Fed will end its two-day policy meeting with a statement but without the usual news conference, so investors will likely be parsing any wording changes in the policy statement more than usual.

While there are no big expectations from the meeting itself, the unanticipated actions of the Swiss National Bank and other central banks earlier in the month could affect what the Fed does.

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