Sigalon's Business & Financial Soup

Earnings season continues with another heavy week of reporters, as 99 companies within the S&P 500 announces quarterly results.

The reporters vary heavily, with names like Amazon.com, Blackstone, Exxon Mobil, and The New York Times Co. all set to announce how they did. Investors will be looking to cues in 2012 guidance as they try to gauge if the year will shape up to be stronger than 2011. 

Interestingly, there's a name on this list you may have not expected to report: MF Global. The now defunct company announces its earnings on Friday.

Below is the week's earnings announcement calendar along with consensus EPS estimates.  Take stock of who you have stock in:

Monday, January 30, 2012:

Wendy's (WEN): $0.04
Gannett (GCI): $0.69
McKesson (MCK): $1.38
Diamond Foods (DMND): $0.73

Tuesday, January 31, 2012: 

McGraw-Hill (MHP): $0.56
Eli Lilly & Co (LLY): $0.81
Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM): $0.76
L-3 Communications (LLL): $2.41
CIT Group (CIT): $0.04
Exxon Mobil (XOM): $1.98
Entergy (ETR): $0.89
Mattel (MAT): $1.00
United Parcel Service (UPS): $1.25
Boston Properties (BXP): $1.19
Dolby Laboratories (DLB): $0.69
Amazon.com (AMZN): $0.16
Aflac (AFL): $1.51
Broadcom (BRCM): $0.65
Valero Energy (VLO): -$0.11
Pfizer (PFE): $0.47
United States Steel (X): -$0.85

Wednesday, February 1, 2012:

Manpower (MAN): $0.88
Aetna (AET): $0.97
Whirlpool (WHR): $1.69
NASDAQ OMX Group (NDAQ): $0.62
Franklin Resources (BEN): $2.08
Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG): $1.83
QUALCOMM (QCOM): $0.90
Las Vegas Sands (LVS): $0.57
Allstate (ALL): $0.98
Electronic Arts (EA): $0.94
Ameriprise Financial (AMP): $1.39
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR): $0.36
Fortune Brands Home & Security (FBHS): $0.15
Tesoro (TSO): -$0.50
JDS Uniphase (JDSU): $0.10
Shutterfly (SFLY): $1.15
Northrop Grumman (NOC): $1.67
AOL (AOL): $0.32
Patriot Coal (PCX): -$0.26
Marathon Oil (MRO): $0.83

Thursday, February 2, 2012:

National Oilwell Varco (NOV): $1.30
Lear (LEA): $1.17
SunCoke Energy (SXC): $0.30
Beazer Homes USA (BZH): -$0.27
International Paper (IP): $0.61
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide (HOT): $0.57
New York Times Co. (NYT): $0.41
PulteGroup (PHM): $0.08
Goodrich (GR): $1.57
WABCO Holdings (WBC): $1.17
CME Group (CME): $3.71
Dow Chemical (DOW): $0.31
Cigna (CI): $1.19
Viacom (VIA.B): $1.06
Kellogg (K): $0.63
Gilead Sciences (GILD): $1.05
Sunoco (SUN): -$0.18
Genworth Financial (GNW): $0.19
Take-Two Interactive Software (TTWO): $0.24
Novellus Systems (NVLS): $0.45
Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCL): $0.15
Merck & Co. (MRK): $0.95
Boston Scientific (BSX): $0.08
Mastercard (MA): $3.92
Southern Copper (SCCO): $0.65
Blackstone Group (BX): $0.38
AMR Corp (AAMRQ): -$0.93

Friday, February 3, 2012: 

Aon (AON): $0.96
Simon Property Group (SPG): $1.90
American Axle & Manufacturing (AXL): $0.39
CBRE Group (CBG): $0.44
Clorox (CLX): $0.69
Beam (BEAM): $0.67
Tyson Foods (TSN): $0.35
Estee Lauder (EL): $1.01
MF Global Holdings (MFGLQ): N/A
TripAdvisor (TRIP): $0.38

Consensus estimates provided by Bloomberg.

Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• UBS: If You Exclude Apple, Then This Earnings Season Sucks
• H&M's Profits Shrink On Rising Cotton Costs And Heavy Discounting
• MOLTO BENE! Italian Borrowing Costs Are Tumbling After Great Bond Auctions

LONDON (AP) — Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Stephen Hester will not be accepting a 1 million pound ($1.5 million) bonus that drew criticism from British public and politicians, the bank said Sunday.

Spokesman David Gaffney said Hester would not receive the bonus of 3.6 million shares he was awarded last week by the board of the largely state-owned bank.

The British government spent 45 billion pounds bailing out RBS three years ago. It still owns an 82 percent stake, and politicians had criticized the reward at a time when Britons face painful spending cuts and tax hikes.

The government — which has insisted it has no control over the bank's bonuses — welcomed the announcement.

"This is a sensible and welcome decision that enables Stephen Hester to focus on the very important job he has got to do, namely to get back billions of pounds of taxpayers' money that was put into RBS," Treasury chief George Osborne said.

The decision follows Saturday's announcement that RBS chairman Philip Hampton was waiving his own bonus of 1.4 million pounds in shares.

Hester and Hampton were brought in after Fred Goodwin, who led RBS's ill-fated takeover of Dutch bank ABN Amro, stepped down in October 2008 as the government was spending billions to prop up the bank.

The board of directors decided last week to award Hester a bonus of 3.6 million shares — worth just under 1 million pounds at Friday's closing share price of 27.74 pence. That came on top of his annual salary of 1.2 million pounds.

Prime Minister David Cameron said Saturday that Hester's bonus was "a matter for him," but pointed out it was much less than last year's.

The government claimed it had no control over bonuses awarded by the bank, and said replacing Hester if he resigned would be more costly than paying the reward.

But many politicians were critical. London Mayor Boris Johnson, a Conservative like Cameron, said he found the bonus "absolutely bewildering."

Rachel Reeves, Treasury spokeswoman for the opposition Labour Party, said Sunday the sum was inappropriate "when families are feeling the pinch."

"It's time the government explained why they have allowed these bonuses to go through unchallenged," she said.

Before the bank's announcement, the Labour Party said it would force a vote in the House of Commons next month calling for Hester to be stripped of his bonus.

Please follow Clusterstock on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• RBS Chairman 'Declines' A Bonus He Likely Wouldn't Have Gotten Anyway
• Morgan Stanley Executive Follows James Gorman's Advice And 'Just Leaves'
• REPORT: Credit Suisse Pay For Senior Bankers Cut By 30%

From WSJ...

Richard D. Parsons, who as chairman of Citigroup Inc. helped steer the bank through its near-death experience in the financial crisis, is considering stepping down after three years in the post, said people familiar with the situation.

The 63-year-old Mr. Parsons is expected to decide by early March, these people said.

We're not sure what to make of it. You don't hear much about Parsons, and it's hard to imagine this move would been se seen as a huge game-changer, especially with the CEO/Chairman roles split.

Please follow Clusterstock on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• The Worst Political Failure Of The Obama Administration
• ROBERT SHILLER: A Housing Bottom? What Are They Thinking?
• Here Is The Anti-Obama Administration Letter That Was Read To Almost Every Catholic Sitting In Church Today

Well actually the weekend has been over for awhile now, but yes, the tone is negative to start the week.

Many markets are down over 0.5%, including US futures, and Japan's Nikkei, which is shown here.

This should be a big week: First, it's jobs week, culminating with the Non-Farm Payrolls report on Friday.

But in terms of event risk, it'll all be about Greece debt talks, which should plenty of headline-fodder all week.

Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• The Euro Is Booming In A Complete Reversal Since This Morning
• And Gold Is Back Above $1,700
• STOCKS SURGE AND THE FED SEES LOW INTEREST RATES FOR YEARS: Here's What You Need To Know

Greece is still furiously working out a haircut deal with its creditors, but the hot new worry in Europe is unquestionably Portugal, land of the surging bond yields.

In a note that identifies: "TOP CLIENT QUESTIONS", SocGen's Global Head Of Economics Michala Marcussen writes

Will Portugal follow Greece? Portuguese bond yields have increased on the back of downgrades and fears that Portugal will follow in the footsteps of Greece. Under the current EU/IMF program, Portugal is due to return to market funding in 2013. For this to become
realistic, 10-year bond yields would have to decline substantially from the current level of
15.1%. In our opinion, the Portuguese government will bite the bullet and deliver deep
reaching structural reform and austerity in 2012. The risk, however, is that even a successful
program may not be enough to secure a sufficient decline in bond yields. That would leave
only two options (1) a second official package or (2) PSI. A firm commitment from euro area
policymakers that Portugal will not see PSI and, if necessary, funds would be made available
would clearly be helpful and push bond yields lower (and thus reduce the risk that an official
second package would be needed!)

And just in case you haven't seen the chart on the 10-year Portuguese bond...

Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Why Portugal Might Be The Real Trigger That Causes The Eurozone To Spiral Out Of Control
• ECB'S GONZALEZ-PARAMO: Actually, The LTRO Is Bigger Than The Bazooka Everyone Was Hoping For
• The Euro Takes A Tumble After Lagarde Suggests The Public Sector Could Take Losses