TradingMarkets 7 Stocks You Need To Know For Monday

Stocks gained ground Friday, with the major indices closing at their highs. The semis, however ended slightly in the red.

The CPI for September rose 1.2%, the most in 25 years. Core CPI rose +0.1%. Much of the increase came from skyrocketing energy prices. Retail sales rose  0.2%; ex auto, +1.1%. Stocks rallied early in the session on this news, but pulled back somewhat after the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index fell to 75.4 in October vs 76 9 in September.

Business inventories for August rose 0.4%, more than expected.

Yahoo (YHOO | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) is in preliminary talks to buy a stake in AOL, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Refco (RFX | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) remains halted, down 72% on the week.

Now, here are a few stocks to watch on Monday:

Citigroup (C | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) is expected to announce 0.99 before the open.

General Motors (GM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) is expected to announce -0.87 before the open.

Before the open, look for Eaton (ETN | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) to announce 1.33.

Mattel (MAT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) is expected to announce 0.61 before the open.

IBM is expected to announce $1.13 after the close.

After the close, Novellus (NVLS | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) is expected to announce 0.21.

The consensus on Rambus (RMBS | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) is 0.02. Not sure exactly what time they report, though.

Bonus stock: A 10% owner of Restoration Hardware (RSTO | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) bought 117,000 shares between $5.46 - $5.47.

Homework assignment: Take a look at this chart of the VIX and tell me what the S&P did the last time we got to these levels.

Brice Wightman
bricewightman@tradingmarkets.com