Earnings Expectations for the Week of August 8

The focus this week, at least initially, will no doubt be on the effect of the downgrade of U.S. debt. But there will be plenty more earnings as well, including reports from Walt Disney

, News Corp.

, Cisco Systems

and Aol

. The parade of retail earnings begins this week also with reports from JCPenney

, Kohl's

, Macy's

and Nordstrom

on tap. Three of these four are expected to post year-over-year earnings growth (see details below). More retail earnings are scheduled to follow next week, including Home Depot

and Walmart

. But here is a day-by-day rundown of some of the most anticipated quarterly reports of this week.

Here is a peek at how analysts expect the earnings week to begin:

Walt Disney

and Aol

are among Tuesday's highlights. Analysts are looking for the house that the mouse built to report per-share earnings of $0.73 and revenues of $10.5 billion, which is an increase from $0.67 and $10.0 billion a year ago. But the story looks very different for Aol: the consensus forecast calls for only $0.04 per share earnings (down 93.9%) and revenues of $530.4 million (down 9.2%). Both Aol and Disney fell short of analyst estimates in the previous quarter. Like Aol, watchmaker Fossil

and James River Coal

are forecast to post smaller earnings, and homebuilder Beazer Homes USA

is expected to post another net loss, its fifth consecutive quarterly loss. But here are some more of the day's anticipated earnings gainers:

Analysts anticipate good news from Macy's

and Polo Ralph Lauren

: per-share earnings are forecast to be 28.6% higher year over year for the former and 16.6% higher for the latter. But expectations are lower for Cisco Systems

, EPS down 11.6%, and Computer Sciences

, EPS down 24.1%. However, revenues for both tech companies are expected to be slightly higher than a year ago. Earnings for Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

are expected to be the same as a year ago: $0.30 per share. But look for double-digit earnings growth from Advance Auto Parts

, Harman International

and Ultra Petroleum

, as well as an anticipated earnings decline from Johnson Outdoors

.

More retail earnings are on deck Thursday: Kohl's

is expected to post per-share earnings of $1.02 and revenues of $4.3 billion, a year-over-year increase from $0.84 and $4.1 billion. And Nordstrom

is expected to report earnings of $0.74 per share on revenues of $2.7 billion, compared to $0.66 and $2.4 billion a year ago. Note that consensus estimates for both have been within a few cents of actual results in recent quarters. The consensus forecast also calls for earnings growth from:

Gaming company Bally Technologies

earnings are expected to be about the same as a year ago, but with revenues up about 4%.

JCPenney

brings a close to the week in earnings with anticipated results about the same as a year ago. That is, earnings of $0.06 per share and revenues of $3.9 billion. Note though that analysts underestimated JCPenney earnings in the past four quarters.