Week ahead: Earnings under the tree

Following are some of the notable tech-related events scheduled for the week of Dec. 15. Goodies or a lump of coal? When Oracle and Palm report their quarterly results on the eve of Christmas week, some will be stuffing their holiday stockings with profits, and others, with losses. And while a number of domestic companies are rolling out their financial results, most of the trade show action will be happening overseas. The information was gathered from First Call, Hoover's Online, CCBN's StreetEvents and CNET Investor. Other events scheduled this week: Tech Events Sunday, Dec. 15 Information on the wireless world will be shared at the upcoming International Conference on Personal Wireless Communications. It's scheduled for Dec. 15-17 in New Delhi, India. Monday, Dec. 16 Catch a glimpse into emerging multimedia systems. Topics to be covered at the 3rd Annual IEEE Pacific-Rim Conference on Multimedia include multichannel, multimodal media processing and distributed signal processing. It's planned for Dec. 16-18 in Hsinchu, Taiwan. Tuesday, Dec. 17 Cluster computing to multiprocessor scheduling are among the topics to be explored at the 2002 International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Systems, slated for Dec. 17-20 in Taiwan. Wednesday, Dec. 18 Power it up. High-performance computing in Asia and recent international work on the topic will be highlighted at HiPC 2002, to be held Dec. 18-21 in Bangalore, India. Got the signal? Signal processing theory and methods, along with Internet software architectures, will be some of the topics discussed at the 2nd IEEE International Symposium on Signal Processing and Information Technology. It's scheduled for Dec. 18-21 in Marrakech, Morocco. Thursday, Dec. 19 Wafer fabrication facilities, as well as photonics technology, are only some of the topics to be covered at 2002 IEEE International Conference on Semiconductor Electronics, Dec. 19-21, Penang, Malaysia. Earnings Tuesday, Dec. 17 Micron Technology makes semiconductor chips. It's expected to report a first-quarter loss of 23 cents a share. Red Hat develops open-source software and is a Linux provider. The company is expected to break even in the third quarter. Wednesday, Dec. 18 Oracle is a database and applications software maker. It's expected to report a second-quarter profit of 8 cents a share. Palm is a handheld device maker. The company is expected to report a second-quarter loss of 17 cents a share. Riverstone Networks makes routers. It's expected to report a third-quarter loss of 16 cents a share. Thursday, Dec. 19 3Com is a networking company. The company is expected to report a second-quarter loss of 3 cents a share. Texas Industries is a semiconductor company. It's expected to report a fourth-quarter profit of 3 cents a share. Economic Reports Tuesday, Dec. 17 Consumer Price Index is one of most significant measures of inflation, monitoring the decline or fall of the price of a fixed basket of consumer goods and services. November growth is expected to drop to 0.2 percent from 0.3 percent in the prior period. Housing Starts is the total of new home construction projects. The November number is expected to grow to 1.69 million, from 1.60 million the previous month. Industrial Production measures the total output of U.S. factories, mines and utilities. November growth is expected to rise to 0.2 percent, from a negative 0.8 percent the previous month. Thursday, Dec. 19 Leading Economic Indicators summarizes previously reported totals such as building permits and unemployment claims. It's expected to rise to 0.3 percent for November, compared with flat results the previous month.

Week ahead: Earnings under the tree

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