The Week Ahead on Wall Street: Apple’s Big Event, Federal Reserve Action, and McDonald’s Earnings on Tap

This week, central bank news will dominate headlines as European policy makers will wait for a court ruling on its euro-zone bailout programs. On Wednesday, Germany’s constitutional court will issue a ruling for the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and the European Stability Mechanism legality.

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The former is the temporary bailout fund while the ESM represents the euro zone’s permanent-rescue fund.

Back in the U.S. investors will have their own wait with the end of the week announcement by Federal Reserve whether or not it will implement another round of stimulus. Its two-day meeting will kick off on Wednesday, followed the long-awaited press conference on Thursday.

Retail sales and industrial production reports are also on tap this week as well as the launch of Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) newest version of the iPhone on Wednesday. Additional corporate news will include a Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE:TXN) midquarter report and McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE:MCD) monthly sales report.

Let’s take a look at the week ahead.

Economic Data

Monday: July Consumer Credit.

Tuesday: August NFIB Small Business Index, July U.S. trade deficit, July Job Openings and Labor Turnover.

Wednesday: August Import Prices and July Wholesale Inventories.

Thursday: Weekly Jobless Claims, August Producer Price Index and August Federal Budget.

Friday: August Retail Sales, August Consumer Price Index, August Industrial Production, August Capacity Utilization, September Reuters/UMich Consumer Sentiment (preliminary) and July Business Inventories.

Earnings

Monday: Casey’s General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY), Del Monte (NYSE:FDP), Five Below (FIVE), John Wiley & Sons (JW.A), Majestic Entertainment (NASDAQ:COOL), Orchard Supply Hardware (OSH), Palo Alto Networks (PANW), Shuffle Master (NASDAQ:SHFL), Titan Machinery (NASDAQ:TITN).

Tuesday: Hanwha Solar (HSOL), McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) monthly, Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN), United Natural Foods (NASDAQ:UNFI).

Wednesday: Spartech (NYSE:SEH).

Thursday: Analogic (NASDAQ:ALOG), K12 (NYSE:LRN), Neiman Marcus, Pier 1 Imports (NYSE:PIR), WW Grainger (NYSE:GWW).

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