Wall Street Braces for Deluge of Gloomy Earnings Reports

For a moment, it looked like the clouds had parted over Wall Street, but the forecast calls for more rain this week with the torrent of disheartening earnings news expected to continue. As the trickle of quarterly report cards from Corporate America begins to grow into a flood, stocks could end the shortened week--with the U.S. financial markets closed on Friday in observance of the Good Friday holiday--underwater. Technology bellwether Motorola Corp. is on the earnings calendar Tuesday, and the company--after no less than two warnings for the period already--is expected to set a bleak tone for the high-tech corporate profit picture.

“It really sets the tone for the rest of earnings. They [Motorola] are involved in so many different industries, it’s a good indicator,” said Matthew Hoffman, wireless-equipment analyst for Wit Soundview. Analysts will be watching Motorola closely, especially after it was forced to deny a report that it was having liquidity problems. The report caused its shares to fall 30% on Friday to their lowest level since April 1993. According to First Call/Thomson Financial, analysts are expecting Motorola to report a first-quarter loss per share ranging from a penny to 14 cents, compared with a profit of 20 cents last year. Motorola has indicated that first-quarter sales will fall short of the $8.8 billion achieved a year ago.

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Quarterly Earnings

A sample of companies expected to report this week: