Week Ahead for Stocks

Unfortunately, after a distressing week for the market, with the SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) down 2.6% on the week and 2.1% on Friday alone, the week ahead may only offer more of the same.

5-Day Chart at Yahoo Finance

It was an ugly week for stocks, with the Dow Jones Industrials taking the worst of it. Capital flowed out of stocks and into safe havens like gold and relative securities like the SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD).

Security	Last Week	Year-to-Date	Last 12 Months
SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY)	-2.6%	-3.1%	+19.7%
SPDR Dow Jones (NYSE: DIA)	-3.4%	-4.2%	+14.8%
PowerShares QQQ (Nasdaq: QQQ)	-1.3%	-1.4%	+30.1%
SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD)	+1.1%	+5.3%	-24.2%
iPath S&P Crude Oil (NYSE: OIL)	+2.9%	-2.2%	-0.7%

The Week Ahead

The market’s focus will be the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) latest monetary policy decision on this coming Wednesday. It seems a far stretch to expect the Fed to back off the tapering it has only just initiated. If, however, it further tapers its asset purchasing activity, affectionately known as quantitative easing, amid fading economic confidence, stocks will slide deeper. And if the Fed holds to its recent pace, but offers further inflation discussion nonetheless, that would hurt as well. Luckily for us, Ben Bernanke is still running the show, so we can at least hope for tempered discussion within the release.

THIS WEEK’S ECONOMIC REPORT SCHEDULE
Economic Data Point	Prior	Expected
MONDAY
New Home Sales (Dec.)	464K	450K
Dallas Fed Manufacturing Survey	3.1	5.0
TUESDAY
FOMC Meeting Begins
Durable Goods Orders (Dec.)	+3.5%	+1.6%
-Ex-Transportation	+1.2%	+0.7%
S&P Case Shiller HPI 20-City (Oct.)	+1.0%	+0.8%
Consumer Confidence	78.1	79.0
State Street Investor Confidence	95.9
Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index	13	10
ICSC Weekly Store Sales	-1.9%
-Year-to-Year Pace	+0.9%
Redbook Store Sales	+3.1%
WEDNESDAY
FOMC Monetary Policy
Mortgage Activity	+4.7%
EIA Petroleum Status
-Crude Oil Inventory	+1.0 M B
-Gasoline Inventory	+2.1 M B
THURSDAY
GDP Q4 2013 (Advance)	4.1%	3.0%
Pending Home Sales (Dec.)	+0.2%	-0.5%
Weekly Jobless Claims	326K	327K
Bloomberg Consumer Comfort	-31
EIA Natural Gas Report	-107 Bcf
FRIDAY
Personal Income (Dec.)	+0.2%	+0.2%
-Personal Spending	+0.5%	+0.2%
-Core PCI	+0.1%	+0.1%
Employment Cost Index	+0.4%	+0.4%
Chicago PMI	59.1	59.5
Consumer Sentiment Index	80.4	81.0
Farm Prices

There will be a slew of other important economic data availing itself this week. Several important measures covering every facet of the economy are scheduled for report this week, save the monthly Employment Situation Report which comes due the following week. So, economic data will either continue to undermine investor confidence or serve to stabilize it. This matters immensely to stocks in need of some reassurance.

Corporate earnings plays strongly as well this week, with big names like Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and others reporting, but no matter the company specific news, I see broader stock market decline continuing.

HIGHLIGHTED EPS REPORTS
Company	Ticker
MONDAY
Apple	Nasdaq: AAPL
Alkermes	Nasdaq: ALKS
American Electric Power	NYSE: AEP
Black Hills	NYSE: BKH
Caterpillar	NYSE: CAT
Haemonetics	NYSE: HAE
Headwaters	NYSE: HW
Kulicke and Soffa	Nasdaq: KLIC
Nathan’s Famous	Nasdaq: NATH
NVR	NYSE: NVR
Oppenheimer	NYSE: OPY
Radware	Nasdaq: RDWR
Rayonier	NYSE: RYN
Regis	NYSE: RGS
Rent-A-Center	Nasdaq: RCII
Roper	NYSE: ROP
Seagate	NYSE: STX
Sonic Foundry	Nasdaq: SOFO
Ultratech	Nasdaq: UTEK
United States Steel	NYSE: X
Wynn Resorts	Nasdaq: WYNN
Zions Bancorporation	Nasdaq: ZION
TUESDAY
A.O. Smith	NYSE: AOS
Amgen	Nasdaq: AMGN
AT&T	NYSE: T
Boston Properties	NYSE: BXP
Calamos Asset Management	Nasdaq: CLMS
Check Point Software	Nasdaq: CHKP
Cirrus Logic	Nasdaq: CRUS
CIT Group	NYSE: CIT
Comcast	Nasdaq: CMCSA
Corning	NYSE: GLW
D.R. Horton	NYSE: DHI
DuPont	NYSE: DD
Electronic Arts	NYSE: EA
Ford	NYSE: F
Iberiabank	Nasdaq: IBKC
Illinois Tool Works	NYSE: ITW
International Speedway	Nasdaq: ISCA
Nucor	NYSE: NUE
Owens-Illinois	NYSE: OI
Pentair	NYSE: PNR
Pfizer	NYSE: PFE
Plantronics	NYSE: PLT
Potlatch	NYSE: PCH
RF Micro Devices	Nasdaq: RFMD
T. Rowe Price	Nasdaq: TROW
VMware	NYSE: VMW
Waters	NYSE: WAT
World Acceptance	Nasdaq: WRLD
Yahoo	Nasdaq: YHOO
WEDNESDAY
1-800-Flowers.com	Nasdaq: FLWS
Amdocs	NYSE: DOX
Biogen Idec	Nasdaq: BIIB
Boeing	NYSE: BA
Callaway Golf	NYSE: ELY
Capstead Mortgage	NYSE: CMO
Citrix Systems	Nasdaq: CTXS
Dow Chemical	NYSE: DOW
EMC	NYSE: EMC
Facebook	NYSE: FB
Hess	NYSE: HES
JetBlue Airways	Nasdaq: JBLU
Mastech	NYSE: MHH
Navios Maritime	NYSE: NMM
Piper Jaffray	NYSE: PJC
Praxair	NYSE: PX
Qualcomm	Nasdaq: QCOM
Southern	NYSE: SO
Symantec	Nasdaq: SYMC
Tetra Tech	Nasdaq: TTEK
Tractor Supply	Nasdaq: TSCO
Tupperware	NYSE: TUP
Valero	NYSE: VLO
Vistaprint	Nasdaq: VPRT
WellPoint	NYSE: WLP
THURSDAY
3M	NYSE: MMM
Alliant Techsystems	NYSE: ATK
Altria Group	NYSE: MO
Amazon.com	Nasdaq: AMZN
AutoNation	NYSE: AN
Beazer Homes	NYSE: BZH
Blackstone	NYSE: BX
BOK Financial	Nasdaq: BOKF
Broadcom	Nasdaq: BRCM
Camden Property Trust	NYSE: CPT
CARBO Ceramics	NYSE: CRR
Cardinal Health	NYSE: CAH
Celgene	Nasdaq: CELG
Chipotle Mexican Grill	NYSE: CMG
Chubb	NYSE: CB
Colgate-Palmolive	NYSE: CL
ConocoPhillips	NYSE: COP
Eli Lilly	NYSE: LLY
Exxon Mobil	NYSE: XOM
Google	Nasdaq: GOOG
Harley-Davidson	NYSE: HOG
Invesco	NYSE: IVZ
JDS Uniphase	Nasdaq: JDSU
Kennametal	NYSE: KMT
L-3 Communications	NYSE: LLL
MakeMyTrip	Nasdaq: MMYT
MICROS Systems	Nasdaq: MCRS
NewMarket	NYSE: NEU
Newmont Mining	NYSE: NEM
Northrop Grumman	NYSE: NOC
Occidental Petroleum	NYSE: OXY
Overstock.com	Nasdaq: OSTK
Peabody Energy	NYSE: BTU
Prologis	NYSE: PLD
Raytheon	NYSE: RTN
The Pantry	Nasdaq: PTRY
Thermo Fisher Scientific	NYSE: TMO
Time Warner Cable	NYSE: TWC
Under Armour	NYSE: UA
United Parcel Service	NYSE: UPS
Viacom	Nasdaq: VIAB
Visa	NYSE: V
Whirlpool	NYSE: WHR
Xcel Energy	NYSE: XEL
Zimmer Holdings	NYSE: ZMH
FRIDAY
AbbVie	Nasdaq: ABBV
Aon	NYSE: AON
Autoliv	NYSE: ALV
Avery Dennison	NYSE: AVY
Baidu	Nasdaq: BIDU
Booz Allen Hamilton	NYSE: BAH
Chevron	NYSE: CVX
CONSOL Energy	NYSE: CNX
Dominion Resources	NYSE: D
ImmunoGen	Nasdaq: IMGN
KKR Financial	NYSE: KFN
Lancaster Colony	Nasdaq: LANC
Lantronix	Nasdaq: LTRX
Lear	NYSE: LEA
Legg Mason	NYSE: LM
LyondellBasell	NYSE: LYB
MasterCard	NYSE: MA
Mattel	NYSE: MAT
Mead Johnson	NYSE: MJN
Micrel	Nasdaq: MCRL
Modine Manufacturing	NYSE: MOD
National Oilwell Varco	NYSE: NOV
Newell Rubbermaid	NYSE: NWL
PACCAR	Nasdaq: PCAR
Pixelworks	Nasdaq: PXLW
Provident Financial Services	NYSE: PFS
Saia	Nasdaq: SAIA
Simon Property	NYSE: SPG
Tyco International	NYSE: TYC
Tyson Foods	NYSE: TSN
Weyerhaeuser	NYSE: WY
WisdomTree Investments	Nasdaq: WETF

Other reports you may enjoy:

Apple EPS Setup Against the Whisper
Stock Market Shock Dictates Continued Avoidance of Passive Long Positions
Alcatel-Lucent EPS – What’s the Whisper Anyway?
Why I See GE’s Soft Floor at $24 and Bedrock at $20

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.