It appears that the pattern for the next few weeks is light earnings periods on Mondays, nearly non existent Fridays (except this week) and jam packed Tuesdays-Thursdays, especially the Thursdays.

Before we go forward let's look back at names we highlighted this week - we talked about the importance of Wells Fargo (WFC) in the entry before this one but the other two I am most interested in are CSX (CSX) (railroad) and Yum Brands (YUM) (restaurants) A company like CSX tells us a lot more about the domestic economy than 40 government reports combined.

As we've been saying for the past few quarters... well the AP headline says it all: CSX Profit Up 19% on Demand for Grains, Coal

• Freight railroad operator CSX Corp. said Tuesday its second-quarter earnings rose 19 percent on strong demand for coal, grain and metals
• The company also reaffirmed its full-year earnings prediction. The company is targeting a 2008 profit in the "upper end" of a range of $3.40 to $3.60 per share.
• CSX said continued robust markets for U.S. coal exports, grain, ethanol, metals and phosphates and fertilizers drove results. Strong pricing in these markets offset a 3 percent slip in total volume. (hmmm, all areas Rising Tide Growth is invested in either directly or as a proxy - good on ya)
• U.S. coal exports have been boosted this year by demand for coal from Europe, in particular for Appalachian coal.
• CSX Corp (CSX), the U.S. railroad, reported higher second-quarter net profit that met expectation on Tuesday as strong pricing offset a 3 percent decline in freight volumes. (this in my estimation reflects the problems in the US)
• But while freight volumes in CSX's coal and agricultural divisions rose 2 percent and 5 percent, respectively, most freight types saw declines in the quarter.
• Automotive shipments fell 23 percent, reflecting a weak year for the U.S. auto industry, while intermodal shipments were down 2 percent. Intermodal shipments rely on standardized containers that haul mostly consumer goods or finished products.

Yum Brands opening line in this report pretty much will summarize what you will see from multinational after multinational. The scary thing is "what if" international sales begin to fall off the cliff - Europe is already in danger, and last to fall is potentially Asia. But for now good enough to at least somewhat offset the dramatic paucity of good news in America.

• Fast-food company Yum Brands Inc. said Wednesday its second-quarter profit grew 4 percent as its overseas operations delivered hefty earnings that offset slumping U.S. profits dragged down by higher commodity costs.
• Yum said its systemwide U.S. same-store sales grew 2 percent compared to the year-ago period, but operating profit fell by double digits amid mounting commodity costs. Commodity costs in the U.S. escalated by $30 million in the quarter compared to a year ago, Yum said, and for the full year the company expects record commodity inflation exceeding $100 million.
• Same-store sales grew by 14 percent in mainland China and 4 percent in the international division. Yum said it added nearly 100 restaurants in China during the quarter and said the pace of new development in 2008 is ahead of last year's record pace. Yum predicted it will reach 3,000 units across 500 cities by year's end; it currently has 2,726 stores in China.
• "There's disappointment that despite the pretty good sales growth in China, the margins were weaker than expected and a lot of that is food cost inflation," Russo said. "It's certainly a sign of the times."
• Restaurant profit margins in China fell to 17.1 percent from 18.2 and in the United States to 12.4 percent from 15.3 percent.

We predicted this inflation would be coming last fall.