The Week Ahead: Earnings from Visa, Coke, Sprint; ECB Decision

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Earnings season will remain in full swing next week. Investors will get earnings data from a variety of stocks like Visa
V
, Coca-Cola
KO
, Zynga
ZNGA
, Sprint
S
, Green Mountain Coffee
GMCR
, Akamai Tech
AKAM
and Expedia
EXPE
, among many others. The S&P 500 closed above 1500 on Friday, at 1513, while the Dow Jones just barely managed to break 14,000 -- finishing the session at 14,009. A few solid earnings reports from key companies may be enough to push the market to new all-time highs: The Dow's all-time closing high is 14,164, while the S&P 500's is 1,565. Social gaming company Zynga will report earnings on Tuesday. The stock has been a terrible performer since it went public. Shortly after its IPO, shares were as high as $15, but since collapsed. Shares of Zynga closed on Friday at $2.66. Analysts at Canaccord Genuity have a Hold rating on the stock. Canaccord believes that the rewards might outweigh the risks heading into earnings, but still remains cautious. Canaccord writes, “We believe there is a good chance the company will meet its standing Q4 guidance. With the stock trading near cash/asset value levels, we believe the risk/reward heading into Q4 reporting is favorable. We maintain our HOLD rating, however, due to mid- and long-term uncertainty regarding where Zynga's model finds a bottom in the ongoing shift away from Facebook.” Visa will follow Zynga and report Wednesday. Shares of Visa closed at $158.56 on Friday, and are up over 10% in the last three months. Gil Luria, Wedbush's Visa analyst, has a Neutral rating on the stock and a $145 price target. “I expect Visa to report another strong quarter,” Luria told Benzinga. “Global growth will combine with some recovery in the US debit market where Visa's share is now stabilizing.” Coca-Cola will report earnings Thursday. The Warren Buffett favorite has failed to participant in the market's recent rally, and is up less than one percent over the last three months. Shares closed at $37.54 Friday. Deutsche Bank has a Buy rating on Coke and a $42 price target. Analysts expect the company to boost its dividend this year. Deutsche Bank writes, “[Coke]...announced that it will hike payout ratio to 30-35% of currency neutral EPS, resulting in dividend increase of at least 15% in 2013.” Internationally, Thursday will be a key day, particularly for forex traders. Both the European Central Bank and the Bank of England will release their interest rate decisions. Economists expect that both banks will leave rates unchanged at 0.75% and 0.50%, respectively, but strong language from the ECB's President Mario Draghi could weigh on the markets. The euro has been appreciating in recent weeks; the European currency is trading around a level of strength it has not seen since November of 2011. While this suggests that market participants are increasingly confident in the viability of the euro as a currency, it may soon begin to have a detrimental effect on European exports. U.S. economic data will be light, particularly compared to last week. Still, investors should be prepared for Tuesday's ISM non-manufacturing index and Thursday's nonfarm productivity.
Monday
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  • Earnings from: Humana HUM, Life Techn LIFE, Baidu BIDU
  • Australian Interest Rate Decision (Expected 3%)
Tuesday
  • Earnings from: Chipotle Mexican Grill CMG, Computer Sciences CSC, Zynga, Kellogg K
  • Eurozone Retail Sales (Expected -0.5%), U.S. ISM Non-manufacturing (Expected 55.1)
Wednesday
  • Earnings from: Visa, Allstate ALL, Green Mountain Coffee
  • New Zealand Unemployment Rate (Expected 7.1%), Australian Unemployment Rate (Expected 5.5%)
Thursday
  • Earnings from: Noble Energy NBL, Coinstar CSTR, Sprint, Cigna CI, Activision-Blizzard ATVI
  • Bank of England Interest Rate Decision (Expected 0.50%), ECB Interest Rate Decision (Expected 0.75%), U.S. Nonfarm Productivity (Expected -1.2%), U.S. Unit Labor Costs (Expected 2.9%)
Friday
  • Earnings from: AOL AOL
  • Chinese CPI (Expected 2.0% Year-over-Year), Canadian Unemployment Rate (Expected 7%), U.S. Trade Balance (Expected -$46B)
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