A big reason the stock market has performed well lately is that corporate earnings were surprisingly strong in the fourth quarter of 2005. This week, Wall Street turns its attention to the first quarter of 2006. Nearly a third of the companies in the Dow Jones industrial average and more than 100 members of the Standard & Poor's 500 index are due to report their first-quarter results.
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Monday, April 17:
TAX DEADLINE: If you haven't already filed your income taxes this year, you have until today, April 17, to mail or E-file your returns to Uncle Sam. Residents of Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, and the District of Columbia have until April 18.
EARNINGS TO WATCH: Citigroup, Knight Ridder, and Wachovia.
Tuesday, April 18:
FED MINUTES: Investors get their first glimpse of what the new Federal Reserve Board chairman, Ben Bernanke, really thinks about inflation. That's because the minutes from the Fed's most recent monetary policy committee, the first to be chaired by Bernanke, will be released today.
HOUSING STARTS: Wall Street will find out how quickly the housing boom is cooling when the Commerce Department reports on trends in housing starts in March.
INFLATION: The Labor Department will release the latest results of the producer price index, a key gauge of inflation at the wholesale level. How many more times the Fed will raise interest rates will depend on how big a problem inflation is for the economy.
EARNINGS TO WATCH: Allstate, Amgen, Boston Scientific, D.R. Horton, Dow Jones, Fifth Third Bancorp, Johnson & Johnson, Mattel, Merrill Lynch, Motorola, Texas Instruments, U.S. Bancorp, Unisys, Washington Mutual, Wells Fargo, and Yahoo!
Wednesday, April 19:
INFLATION: This morning, Wall Street turns its attention to retail inflation. The Labor Department is scheduled to release the March results of the closely followed consumer price index.
EARNINGS TO WATCH: Abbott Laboratories, AMR Corp., Apple Computer, AT&T, CIT Group, Coca-Cola, E*Trade, eBay, General Dynamics, Genzyme, Honeywell, Intel, J.P. Morgan Chase, Kraft Foods, NYSE Group, Pfizer, and United Technologies.
Thursday, April 20:
LEADING ECONOMIC INDICATORS: The Conference Board is scheduled to release the latest results of its closely watched Index of Leading Economic Indicators. The index, which attempts to forecast future economic activity, has risen in four of the past five months.
EARNINGS TO WATCH: Altria Group, Bank of America, Bank of New York, BellSouth, Belo, Capital One, Continental Airlines, Eli Lilly, EMC, General Motors, Google, Marriott, Merck, Newmont Mining, and Union Pacific.
Friday, April 21:
EARNINGS TO WATCH: 3M, Ford Motor Co., Halliburton, RadioShack, Schlumberger, and Wyeth.
