The Week Ahead

Posted January 16th, 2012 by The Options Insider in Industry

After ending the week on S&P downgrades on the euro zone, market watchers will continue to watch developments in that area including Greece's efforts to restructure its government debt. For market participants in the U.S., it will be a shortened week with the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday on Monday.

When the markets open on Tuesday, it will be a very busy week with earnings reports dominated by financial companies. On Thursday, look for news from weekly jobless claims.

Over in Asia, Chinese economic data will be the focus this week as investors will wait to see whether numbers support further monetary easing measures from Beijing. This past week, China released consumer inflation figures, which showed a slight easing to 4.1 percent in December, year over year. On Tuesday, the market will see another piece of the puzzle as China reports its fourth-quarter economic growth as well as retail sales and industrial output.

Mining companies will take over the headlines with their fourth quarter earnings reports. On Tuesday, Rio Tinto Ltd. will release its numbers, followed by BHP Billiton Ltd. on Wednesday.

On Friday, HSBC will release initial results from the January survey of manufacturers (China Purchasing Manufacturing Index).

Back in the U.S., it's all about earning reports.

Economic Numbers

Monday: Spain sells T-bills

Tuesday: EarningsEmpire State Manufacturing Survey for January

Wednesday: Portugal sells bills, December PPI, November TIC Data, Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization for December and NAHB Housing Market Index for January

Thursday: France sells bonds and notes, Spain sells bonds, weekly jobless claims, December housing starts, December CPI and January Philly Fed Index

Friday: Existing Home Sales for December

Earnings

Monday: None

Tuesday: Forest Labs, M&T Bank, Linear Technology, Citigroup and Wells Fargo

Wednesday: eBay, PNC Financial, State Street, Xilinx, Northern Trust, Charles Schwab, US Bancorp, SLM Corporation, Bank of New York Mellon, Goldman Sachs, Fastenal, and F5 Networks

Thursday: Johnson Controls, Union Pacific, BB&T, BlackRock , Freeport-McMoRan, Huntingon Bancshares, Southwest Airlines , PPG Industries, UnitedHealth Group, Microsoft, Intuitive Surgical, Intel, IBM, Google, American Express, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Rockwell Collins, Peopleís United Financial, and Capital One