US EQUITIES WEEK AHEAD: Jobs, Auto Sales Data; More 2Q Results

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- The July unemployment rate, to be released next Friday, is expected to tick up to 9.6% from 9.5% in June.

Auto makers and major retailers will release July sales figures Tuesday and Thursday, respectively.

Three Dow Jones Industrial Average components and a fith of the companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index will report second-quarter results next week in the final "peak" week of earnings season.

Economists expect the July jobless rate, to be issued next Friday, will rise slightly from June, when only 83,000 private-sector jobs were created, according to the Labor Department's initial reading. Overall, the U.S. shed jobs in June for the first time this year as hundreds of thousands of part-time Census jobs ended. The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell slightly last week, but that followed a big rise the previous period, signaling little improvement in the job market.

July U.S. new-vehicle sales, out Tuesday, are expected to grow 8.4% from a year earlier, according to Edmunds.com, which expects sales to be the highest since the Cash For Clunkers frenzy last August. U.S. auto sales in July 2009 reached their highest pace since before the financial crisis, boosted at the end of the month by a rush of customers lured into showrooms by the federal government's rebate program, the car-shopping website said. Edmunds on Thursday estimated the industry will sell roughly 1.1 million units in July, which would result in a seasonally adjusted, annualized rate of 11.8 million units, up from 11.1 million in June.

Major retailers will report July same-store sales Thursday, after posting mixed results a month earlier. Some stores benefited from aggressive promotions in June, while others remained pinched by consumers' restrained spending. Michael Glimcher, chief executive of mall-owner Glimcher Realty Trust (GRT), said this week that more retailers are feeling confident enough about the economy to take new space in malls, signing leases for stores that will open in 2011. He hadn't seen that commitment to expansion in the past couple of years.

Major media companies, which are among those reporting results next week, are expected to show improvements from a year earlier as advertising markets rebound.

CBS Corp. (CBS, CBSA), which reports Tuesday, is likely to see results similar to General Electric Co.'s (GE) NBC, which said second-quarter ad sales climbed 20% on strength at its cable networks, local stations and even the flagship network. News Corp. (NWSA, NWS.AU), owner of Dow Jones & Co., publisher of this newswire, and Time Warner Inc. (TWX) both report Wednesday. Both companies are likely to show strength in their cable networks. Viacom Inc. (VIA, VIAB), which reports Thursday, is expected to benefit from a string of blockbusters produced by its Paramount Pictures unit.

Pfizer Inc. (PFE), the world's biggest drug maker by sales, wraps up Big Pharma's second-quarter reporting season Tuesday. Earnings excluding one-time items are expected to rise 8% on a big jump in sales because of Pfizer's acquisition of Wyeth last year. But a likely headwind is pricing pressure in Europe, where national health programs have cut drug spending to help close budget gaps. A big focus for investors will be Pfizer's drug-research pipeline, which has had setback after setback, leaving a big question mark about whether the company can reach long-term financial targets that it laid out with the Wyeth deal.

Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) and Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT), both components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, will report results Tuesday and Thursday, respectively. P&G is likely to post lower earnings on slightly higher revenue than a year earlier as it aggressively pushes to introduce new products and increase advertising. The company also has cut prices or introduced less-expensive versions of some goods to attract bargain-hunting U.S. consumers and less-affluent customers in emerging markets. Kraft also is expected to report lower earnings on improved revenue in the first full quarter to reflect results from its nearly $18 billion purchase of Cadbury.

Reports out Tuesday on June personal incomes and spending are expected to show small increases. Neither figure has grown more than 0.5% this year as inflation remains tame. The government will report on June construction spending Monday and June factory orders Tuesday. The Institute for Supply Management releases its report on manufacturing in July on Monday, two days before it details July activity in the services sector. The government also reports on June consumer credit next Friday.

Among appearances by Federal Reserve officials: Chairman Ben Bernanke with speak at the Southern Legislative Conference's 64th annual meeting Monday in Charleston, S.C.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will discuss the "next steps for financial reform" Monday afternoon at New York University's Stern School of Business. He is scheduled to talk about the Wall Street reforms included in recent legislation passed by Congress.

Research in Motion Ltd. (RIMM, RIM.T) will likely show off its new Blackberry 6 operating system and slider device Tuesday. There has been eager anticipation for a revamp of the Blackberry software, which many believe has fallen behind Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Google Inc.'s (GOOG) Android software. There has been no indication on whether RIM will show off a planned tablet device.

A $788.5 million commercial mortgage-backed securities issue from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Citigroup Inc. (C) is expected to launch and price next week. Commercial mortgage bonds are popular with investors because they're relatively cheap, offering higher yields than other asset classes. But this is only the fourth such issue this year, leading many analysts to scale back their projection for commercial mortgage issuance to $5 billion this year from $15 billion to $20 billion.

Station Casinos Inc. will auction a number of its casino properties next Friday after reaching a deal this week with its unsecured creditors, who had sought to delay the sale. The bankrupt company, which owns 18 casinos in Nevada, plans to auction several of its casino properties and reorganize around its four Las Vegas casinos. Station's founding Fertitta family has agreed to open bidding at the auction with a $772 million bid.

The Senate is expected to approve a slimmed-down measure to enhance airliner safety before Congress begins its August recess at the end of next week. The House passed the bill Thursday after congressional leaders deadlocked over a comprehensive Federal Aviation Administration bill, including plans for air-traffic control improvements. The legislation raises minimum experience and training requirements for new airline pilots and requires that before purchasing tickets on the Internet, passengers must be informed when a flight will be operated by a commuter carrier on behalf of a larger airline.

The Senate is expected to confirm President Barack Obama's nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court next week. At least four Republicans plan to vote for the former dean of Harvard Law School who would be the fourth woman to sit on the nation's highest court.

Among the significant conferences next week are the Wedbush Morgan Securities Life Sciences Best Ideas Management Access Conference on Tuesday in New York, Bank of America Merrill Lynch Senior IT Executive & Private Technology Company Conference on Tuesday in Boston, and BMO Capital Markets Focus on Healthcare Conference on Thursday in New York.

-By Kathy Shwiff, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2357; kathy.shwiff@dowjones.com

(Peter Loftus and other Dow Jones Newswires staff contributed to this report.)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

07-30-10 1452ET