The Week Ahead on Wall Street: Europe, of Course, and Retailer Earnings

Looking ahead to next week, investors will keep their eyes on Europe. Italy’s lower chamber of parliament passed the new budget and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s is expected to resign. Economist and former European Union commissioner Mario Monti is expected to take over.

Europe will also announce euro-zone GDP and inflation data. The U.K. will report its CPI numbers on Wednesday.

Over in Asia, investors will look for news from Japan. On Monday, it will report preliminary gross domestic product estimates for July to September and on Wednesday, the Bank of Japan will announce its policy decision.

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Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (NYSE:MTU) and Mizuho Financial Group (NYSE:MFG) will report earnings.

Over in the United States, here’s a look at the upcoming week:

Economic numbers

Tuesday: October retail sales, Producer Price Index and September Manufacturing inventories

Wednesday: Consumer Price Index, Industrial production, TIC data for September, Capacity utilization for October and the NAHB housing market index for November

Thursday: October housing starts, November Philly Fed Index, ECB Governing Council meeting and jobless claims

Friday: Leading indicators, ECB President Mario Draghi speaks and EU finance ministers meet in Brussels

Earnings

Lots of earnings this week. Third quarter results from Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT) on Tuesday and fiscal fourth quarter results from Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) on Wednesday.

Monday: Lowe’s (NYSE:LOW), J.C. Penney (NYSE:JCP) and Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:URBN).

Tuesday: Autodesk, Home Depot (NYSE:HD), Staples (NASDAQ:SPLS), Jacobs Engineering, Dell (NASDAQ:DELL), Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT), TJX (NYSE:TJX) and Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A).

Wednesday: Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF), Target (NYSE:TGT), Limited Brands (NYSE:LTD), NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) and Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT).

Thursday: GameStop (NYSE:GME), Helmerich & Payne (NYSE:HP), J.M. Smucker (NYSE:SJM), Sears Holdings (NASDAQ:SHLD), Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM), Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU), Ross Stores (NASDAQ:ROST), Gap (NYSE:GPS).

Friday: H.J. Heinz (NYSE:HNZ).

Fed Speak

Tuesday: Chicago Fed President Richard Evans, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, San Francisco Fed President John Williams and Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher.

Wednesday: Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker and Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren.

Thursday: Cleveland Fed President Sandra Pianalto and New York Fed President Bill Dudley.

Friday: San Francisco Fed President John Williams.

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