The Week Ahead: Earnings Take Center Stage, Debt Crisis Drama Continues

Earnings will take center stage this week as investors will keep their ears open for companies’ exposures to Europe and how they’re dealing with the looming fiscal cliff. Federal Reserve Chief Ben Bernanke will go to Capitol Hill and present his semi-annual monetary policy report to Congress. This will kick off with Tuesday’s testimony to the Senate Banking Committee followed by a visit to the House Financial Services panel on Wednesday.

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The week’s economic numbers may be overshadowed by earnings but they will give glimpse into the year’s second half.

From overseas, Spain and France will hold bond auctions on Thursday before Friday’s meeting of European officials; the group is to hash out final details for Spain’s bank bailout. Expectations are low for the meeting, reported MarketWatch, with hopes for no major falls for the two countries prior to the meeting.

Economic Numbers

Monday: July New York Fed Empire State survey, June retail sales and May business inventories

Tuesday: June consumer prices, June industrial production, June capacity utilization and July NAHB housing market index

Wednesday: June housing starts and June building permits

Thursday: Weekly jobless claims, June existing home sales, July Philadelphia Fed manufacturing survey and June Leading Index

Earnings

Monday: Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C), Gannett Co. (NYSE:GCI), J.B. Hunt (NASDAQ:JBHT), Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO) and Cintas (NASDAQ:CTAS)

Tuesday: Johnson & Johnson Inc. (NYSE:JNJ), Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE:KO), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS), Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC), Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), State Street (NYSE:STT), TD Ameritrade (NASDAQ:AMTD), CSX (NYSE:CSX), Comerica (NYSE:CMA), Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) and Mattel (NASDAQ:MAT)

Wednesday: Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC), American Express Co. (NYSE:AXP), IBM (NYSE:IBM), Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT), Yum Brands Inc. (NYSE:YUM), Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM), eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY), Blackrock (NYSE:BLK), Honeywell (NYSE:HON), U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB), Delta Air (NYSE:DAL), and Bank of New York (NYSE:BK)

Thursday: Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT), Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT), Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), Travelers (NYSE:TRV), Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE:AMD), Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), E*Trade (NASDAQ:ETFC), Fifth Third (NASDAQ:FITB), AutoNation (NYSE:AN), KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY), BB&T (NYSE:BBT), Johnson Controls (NYSE:JCI), Philip Morris (NYSE:PM), Southwest Air (NYSE:LUV), Union Pacific (NYSE:UNP), Baxter (NYSE:BAX), Capital One (NYSE:COF), NCR (NYSE:NCR), SanDisk (NASDAQ:SNDK)

Friday: General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE) and Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE:SLB)

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