Week Ahead: Put Up or Shut Down

The market will demand U.S. legislators put up this week, and sustain the standard of living of the United States. If, by some asinine mega-failure, Congress misses, the government will shut down and life as we know it will shut down along with it. This is not an exaggeration and there is no political position behind my statement; the loss of the full faith in the credit of the United States would catalyze a downward spiral globally, as the dollar is the base of all value today in the world. Undermining it today would undermine global civilization.

Week Ahead

Index ETF	Week Ending Oct. 11	Year-to-Date
SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY)	+0.8%	+19.6%
SPDR Dow Jones (NYSE: DIA)	+1.2%	+16.5%
PowerShares QQQ (Nasdaq: QQQ)	-0.2%	+21.6%

Stocks caught a lift at the close of last week when on Thursday Congressional leaders indicated their willingness to arrive at a solution before the October 17 deadline were to come to pass. Now, if the leaders fail to offer up something constructive Monday morning, stocks should start to worry again. It seems, though, that at minimum a short-term solution will be found before the 17th.

Economic Events

THIS WEEK’S ECONOMIC REPORT SCHEDULE
Economic Data Point	Prior	Expected
MONDAY
Ben Bernanke Speech
TUESDAY
Empire State Manufacturing Index	6.29	7.0
ICSC Weekly Store Sales	-0.1%
-Year-to-Year Pace	+1.8%
Redbook Store Sales	+3.3%
William Dudley Speech
Richard Fisher Speech
WEDNESDAY
Consumer Price Index	+0.1%	+0.2%
-Core CPI	+0.1%	+0.2%
Housing Market Index	58	58
Fed Beige Book
Atlanta Fed Biz Inflation Expectations	1.9%
Mortgage Activity	+1.3%
Treasury Int’l Capital	+$31.1 B
Richard Fisher
THURSDAY
Housing Starts	891K	913K
-Permits	918K	935K
Industrial Production	+0.4%	+0.4%
-Capacity Utilization	77.8%	78.1%
-Manufacturing Production	+0.7%	+0.3%
Bloomberg Consumer Comfort	-29.7
Weekly Jobless Claims	374K	330K
EIA Petroleum Status
-Crude Oil Inventory	+6.8 M
-Gasoline Inventory	+0.1 M
EIA Natural Gas Report	NA
Philly Fed Index	22.3	15.0
Esther George Speaks
Narayana Kocherlakota Speaks
Charles Evans
Richard Fisher
FRIDAY
Leading Economic Indicators	+0.7%	+0.6%
Jeremy Stein Speaks
Daniel Tarullo Speaks
Charles Evans Speaks

The week brings a slew of housing, manufacturing and other economic data, though it’s hard to say how much of it will actually be reported given the government shutdown. With the 17th looming large, most expect Congressional leaders to bring something to the table early in the week.

The economic reports that should garner the most attention should be the Leading Economic Indicators Index, Housing Starts and Industrial Production. Investors are starting to worry about the real impact of the government shutdown on the economy and the paralyzing effects of the looming debt ceiling deadline upon business activity. So I would advise investors to pay close attention to the weekly consumer comfort measure and same-store sales data for a better take on today’s economy. It’s too soon to see any impact in the other numbers.

Many Fed representatives are scheduled to speak this week, and the Fed’s Beige Book report on regional business is also due. Investors will want to shift their focus from Janet Yellen, and her very likely approval to lead the Fed, to the details of what the Fed representatives say about economic activity.

Corporate Events

Earnings season has begun, and if that was not evident by Alcoa’s (NYSE: AA) earnings report at the close of last week, then it should be by the number of companies reporting this week. The flow of financial sector reports continues, with leaders Citigroup, Bank of America and others reporting, along with many other market and industrial leaders, including Google and Honeywell.

HIGHLIGHTED EPS REPORTS
Company	Ticker
MONDAY
KMG Chemicals	NYSE: KMG
Cubic Energy	NYSE: QBC
Packaging Corp. of America	NYSE: PKG
Stanley Furniture	Nasdaq: STLY
Wintrust Financial	Nasdaq: WTFC
Brown & Brown	NYSE: BRO
Coca-Cola	NYSE: KO
Mercantile Bank	Nasdaq: MBWM
Omnicom Group	NYSE: OMC
Citigroup	NYSE: C
Rocky Mountain Chocolate	Nasdaq: RMCF
Commerce Bancshares	Nasdaq: CBSH
First Republic Bank	NYSE: FRC
Charles Schwab	Nasdaq: SCHW
Linear Technology	Nasdaq: LLTC
Yahoo!	Nasdaq: YHOO
CSX	NYSE: CSX
Interactive Brokers	Nasdaq: IBKR
Marten Transport	Nasdaq: MRTN
Enzo Biochem	NYSE: ENZ
Pinnacle Financial	Nasdaq: PNFP
Intel	Nasdaq: INTC
Renasant	Nasdaq: RNST
Joe’s Jeans	Nasdaq: JOEZ
WEDNESDAY
Bank of America	NYSE: BAC
Mattel	NYSE: MAT
Northern Trust	Nasdaq: NTRS
PNC Financial	NYSE: PNC
PepsiCo	NYSE: PEP
Watsco	NYSE: WSO
KeyCorp	NYSE: KEY
Comerica	NYSE: CMA
Stanley Black & Decker	NYSE: SWK
MGIC Investment	NYSE: MTG
Abbot Laboratories	NYSE: ABT
BlackRock	NYSE: BLK
Piper Jaffray	NYSE: PJC
Bank of New York Mellon	NYSE: BK
St. Jude Medical	NYSE: STJ
Knoll	NYSE: KNL
JTH Holding	NYSE: TAX
Community Trust	Nasdaq: CTBI
Westamerica Bancorporation	Nasdaq: WABC
Union Bankshares	NYSE: UNB
Frisch’s Restaurants	NYSE: FRS
HNI Corp.	NYSE: HNI
Heritage-Crystal Clean	Nasdaq: HCCI
IBM	NYSE: IBM
Pacific Continental	Nasdaq: PCBK
Cohen & Steers	NYSE: CNS
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners	NYSE: KMP
Steel Dynamics	Nasdaq: STLD
Kinder Morgan Management	NYSE: KMR
RLI	NYSE: RLI
eBay	Nasdaq: EBAY
Umpqua Holdings	Nasdaq: UMPQ
CYS Investments	NYSE: CYS
Astoria Financial	NYSE: AF
Xilinx	Nasdaq: XLNX
Select Comfort	Nasdaq: SCSS
LaSalle Hotel Properties	NYSE: LHO
East West Bancorp	Nasdaq: EWBC
Albermarle	NYSE: ALB
United Rentals	NYSE: URI
Crown Holdings	NYSE: CCK
Exponent	Nasdaq: EXPO
THURSDAY
Insteel Industries	Nasdaq: IIIN
Penn National Gaming	Nasdaq: PENN
Dover	NYSE: DOV
Verizon	NYSE: VZ
Sonoco Products	NYSE: SON
M&T Bank	NYSE: MTB
Huntington Bancshares	Nasdaq: HBAN
Baxter Int’l	NYSE: BAX
PrivateBancorp	Nasdaq: PVTB
Briggs & Stratton	NYSE: BGG
Travelzoo	Nasdaq: TZOO
BB&T	NYSE: BBT
SuperValu	NYSE: SVU
Philip Morris Int’l	NYSE: PM
Hubbell	Nasdaq: HUBB
Goldman Sachs	NYSE: GS
Orbital Sciences	NYSE: ORB
Fifth Third Bancorp	Nasdaq: FITB
Danaher	NYSE: DHR
Cypress Semiconductor	NYSE: CY
UnitedHealth	NYSE: UNH
Capital Bank Financial	NYSE: CBF
Snap-On	NYSE: SNA
Blackstone	NYSE: BX
Home BancShares	Nasdaq: HOMB
Peabody Energy	NYSE: BTU
Pool Corp.	Nasdaq: POOL
Fairchild Semiconductor	NYSE: FCS
Sandy Spring Bancorp	Nasdaq: SASR
Nucor	NYSE: NUE
Quest Diagnostics	NYSE: DGX
PPG Industries	NYSE: PPG
Ultratech	Nasdaq: UTEK
Union Pacific	NYSE: UNP
American River Bankshares	Nasdaq: AMRB
Alliance Data Systems	NYSE: ADS
NetScout Systems	Nasdaq: NTCT
Simmons First National	Nasdaq: SFNC
Winnebago	NYSE: WGO
American National Bankshares	Nasdaq: AMNB
AMR	OTC: AAMRQ
Intuitive Surgical	Nasdaq: ISRG
Fidelity Southern	Nasdaq: LION
Badger Meter	NYSE: BMI
Las Vegas Sands	NYSE: LVS
WD-40	Nasdaq: WDFC
OceanFirst Financial	Nasdaq: OCFC
Align Technology	Nasdaq: ALGN
Clubcorp	Nasdaq: MYCC
National Bankshares	Nasdaq: NKSH
Cytec Industries	NYSE: CYT
Advanced Micro Devices	NYSE: AMD
Capital One Financial	NYSE: COF
Bridge Capital	Nasdaq: BBNK
Greenhill & Co.	NYSE: GHL
B&G Foods	NYSE: BGS
F.N.B.	NYSE: FNB
BancFirst	Nasdaq: BANF
Kaiser Aluminum	Nasdaq: KALU
Eastgroup Properties	NYSE: EGP
CoBiz Financial	Nasdaq: COBZ
Google	Nasdaq: GOOG
Stryker	NYSE: SYK
Cepheid	Nasdaq: CPHD
United Financial Bancorp	Nasdaq: UBNK
MB Financial	Nasdaq: MBFI
Western Alliance	NYSE: WAL
Westwood	NYSE: WHG
Zhone Technologies	Nasdaq: ZHNE
Hub Group	Nasdaq: HUBG
Rambus	Nasdaq: RMBS
Acacia Research	Nasdaq: ACTG
Associated Banc-Corp	Nasdaq: ASBC
Independent Bank	Nasdaq: INDB
Boston Private Financial	Nasdaq: BPFH
athenahealth	Nasdaq: ATHN
Electronics for Imaging	Nasdaq: EFII
Sensient Technologies	NYSE: SXT
Chipotle Mexican Grill	NYSE: CMG
Werner Enterprises	Nasdaq: WERN
First Financial Bankshares	Nasdaq: FFIN
Taylor Capital Group	Nasdaq: TAYC
People’s United Financial	Nasdaq: PBCT
FRIDAY
MoSys	Nasdaq: MOSY
First Niagara Financial	Nasdaq: FNFG
Baker Hughes	NYSE: BHI
First Horizon National	NYSE: FHN
Laboratory Corp. of America	NYSE: LH
Textron	NYSE: TXT
SunTrust Banks	NYSE: STI
Parker Hannifin	NYSE: PH
Honeywell	NYSE: HON
Genuine Parts	NYSE: GPC
Tompkins Financial	NYSE: TMP
Schlumberger	NYSE: SLB
Interpublic Group of Cos.	NYSE: IPG
Acme United	NYSE: ACU
Metrocorp Bancshares	Nasdaq: MCBI
Morgan Stanley	NYSE: MS

Please see our disclosures at the Wall Street Greek website and author bio pages found there. This article and website in no way offers or represents financial or investment advice. Information is provided for entertainment purposes only.