BY Momei Qu:

Contributor, Stock Traders Daily

Real Time Trading Reports:  Included are detailed trading reports designed to help investors realize opportunities in these companies as earnings are released.  The reports are linked to the stock symbols in the article below. Performance - Click Here

(La Jolla, CA)  (La Jolla, CA) The economy has been giving mixed signals as to whether or not it is going through a recovery. While the financial sector has pulled itself back from rock bottom, unemployment is still hovering at nearly 10%. A good indicator of the economic environment is consumer spending on “wants” as opposed to “needs.” This week we take a look at four companies in the travel and entertainment industry to get a sense of consumer sentiment.

TravelZoo (Nasdaq: TZOO), set to report earnings Wednesday, closed Monday at $13.26 after making an impressive turnaround from its 52 week low of $3.72. TZOO has received positive results from its subsidiary fly.com, a new airfare search engine established to provide the most user friendly online travel tool. Fly.com has experienced high traffic from the United States and recently expanded to the United Kingdom. Although the number of subscribers has increased, analysts are still predicting a loss of $0.04 a share due to weak overall economy and travel demand. Revenues are projected to be $21.3 million. To learn more about investment strategies and risks for TZOO, download our free TZOO trading report.

Also reporting Wednesday is Wyndham Worldwide Corp (NYSE: WYN), provider of hotels and hospitality services. Analysts are estimating earnings of $0.56 per share on $1 billion revenue. WYN is riding on positive response from Wall Street after deciding to sell off its existing timeshare inventory and exit the business. It also has plans to create a fee based model for services that would yield much higher margins. The market seems to have already picked up on this change though. WYN closed at $17.17 Monday, up from its 52 week low of $2.55 and on its way to its 52 week high of $18.43. Is there still value to be made on WYN stock or has price gone too high? Our free WYN trading report can help you make the decision.

Thursday we see online travel market leader Expedia (Nasdaq: EXPE) report third quarter earnings. Analysts predict earnings per share of $0.43 on revenues of $828 million. Traffic has been strong for the past few months – third quarter demand rose 21% after rising 14% in 2Q. In addition, pricing has increased steadily since July, so there is a positive trend both for volume and for margins. Consumers are also continuing to respond to the elimination of booking fees by Expedia, as shown in the increased traffic figures. Like both WYN and TZOO however, Expedia’s stock has responded to much of this news. EXPE closed at $26.52 Monday, less than a dollar below its 52 week high of $27.37 and over 4x higher than its 52 week low of $6. To see which of these three companies have potential to exceed its high point, take a look at our free trading report on EXPE or any of the others mentioned above.

One stock in the entertainment sector that has followed a different trend is CEC Entertainment (NYSE: CEC). CEC is trading at the mid-point of its 52 week low/high after closing at $25.66 Monday. The stock took a dip during July and August due to the outbreak of H1N1. Since CEC targets children and parents of young children, the spreading disease could significantly dampen traffic. Revenues and profits didn’t seem to be affected, however, as CEC saw higher demand during the quarter. It is projected to report earnings per share of $0.46 a share on revenues of $196 million. Long term risk/reward is mixed. CEC has high capital expenditures used to renovate and upgrade existing stores, as image is important in entertainment. On the other hand, the entertainment component has given CEC higher gross margins than traditional restaurants. We recommend that readers download our free CEC trading report to see how to utilize all this information to make informed investment decisions.