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This will be an extremely busy week on Wall Street. In addition to a slew of corporate earnings announcements, investors will be paying close attention to a new government report that will assess economic growth in the third quarter. And the Federal Reserve Board will hold a two-day meeting this week to discuss the nation's interest-rate policy.
Monday, October 23:
EARNINGS TO WATCH: American Express, Amgen, AT&T, Ford Motor, Halliburton, Hasbro, Kraft Foods, Netflix, Texas Instruments, and Xerox.
Tuesday, October 24:
FED MEETING BEGINS: The Federal Reserve's monetary committee will begin a two-day meeting to set the nation's interest-rate policy. This will be the last Fed meeting before the upcoming midterm elections.
STATE STREET INVESTOR CONFIDENCE: State Street will release the latest results of its closely followed investor confidence index, which tracks the mood of investors based on the types of assets they are holding in their portfolios.
FED ANNOUNCEMENT: The Fed is scheduled to announce its decision on interest rates at 2:15 p.m. Eastern. Most investors expect the Fed to leave rates alone for the third straight meeting. But if the Fed decides to resume raising rates in an effort to quell inflation, it could lead to a volatile day in the equity markets.
EXISTING-HOME SALES: The National Association of Realtors will release the September results for existing-home sales. Pay close attention to the median sales price on homes sold last month, as sellers have been reducing prices on properties in several key markets.
EARNINGS TO WATCH: Boeing, Colgate-Palmolive, ConocoPhillips, DaimlerChrysler, EnCana, Estee Lauder, Hess, and Weyerhaeuser.
Thursday, October 26:
NEW-HOME SALES: Today, the Commerce Department will report on sales of newly constructed homes in September.
EARNINGS TO WATCH: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Dow Chemical, ExxonMobil, GlaxoSmithKline, Kellogg, Microsoft, Sony, Sprint Nextel, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Sun Microsystems, and US Airways.
Friday, October 27:
GDP REPORT: The Commerce Department will issue a preliminary assessment of how fast the U.S. economy grew in the recently ended third quarter. Many economists believe that gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic activity, expanded at an annual rate of around 2 percent in the third quarter. That would be down slightly from the 2.6 percent pace the economy was on in the second quarter. Regardless of the results, this will be a critical economic data point for the midterm elections in November.
CONSUMER SENTIMENT: The University of Michigan releases the latest results of its closely followed index of consumer confidence.
EARNINGS TO WATCH: Alltel, Baker Hughes, Chevron, and Fortune Brands.
