Home Depot Inc. HD, -0.68% is the lone Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.78% component on the docket, and will be joined by plenty of other retailers that will add to the recent results from Walmart Inc. WMT, +0.76% More than 440 members of the S&P 500 SPX, -1.05% have already delivered results and 41 more companies are set to join them in the week ahead, with non-retail reports largely focused on software.
The projection for earnings growth comes in a reversal of sentiment from the start of reporting season, when analysts were projecting a continuation of the earnings recession, which exists when profits drop for two or more consecutive quarters.Retail Walmart Inc. helped usher in retail earnings with a disappointing forecast, partly due to the coronavirus impact, but detailed the money it can save by getting rid of bags.
Software Salesforce.com Inc. CRM, -2.00% , the biggest name in cloud software, will kick off a wave of software results Tuesday afternoon. There was some concern about the corporate-spending landscape late last year, but early results from companies like ServiceNow Inc. NOW, -2.40% have inspired more confidence in the software sector.