It’s that time again: The Federal Open Market Committee meets this week, and we’ll see what the Fed has to say about the future and pace of its bond-buying program.
That and the “quadruple witching” on Friday (the expiration date of various stock options, future, and index options and futures) may make for an interesting week on the stock market.
What follows are calendar highlights for the week. (All times are Eastern Standard Time; forecasts by analysts/economists polled by Bloomberg.)
Federal Reserve Events
Tuesday, March 18
FOMC meeting begins
Wednesday, March 19
FOMC meeting announcement (2 p.m.) and press conference (2:30 p.m.)
Economic Reports
Monday, March 17
Empire State Manufacturing Survey, 8:30 a.m.
Treasury International Capital, 9 a.m.
Industrial Production, 9:15 a.m.
Housing Market Index, 10 a.m.
Tuesday, March 18
Consumer Price Index, 8:30 a.m.
Housing Starts, 8:30 a.m.
Wednesday, March 19
EIA Petroleum Status Report, 10:30 a.m.
Thursday, March 20
Jobless Claims, 8:30 a.m.
Philadelphia Fed Survey, 10 a.m.
Existing Home Sales 10 a.m.
Company Earnings Reports
Tuesday, March 18
American Apparel
Hertz Global Holdings
Oracle Corp.
Wednesday, March 19
Cintas Corp.
Fedex Corp.
General Mills, Inc.
Guess?, Inc.
Thursday, March 20
Conagra Foods (consensus estimate: 67 cents a share)
Nike, Inc. (76 cents per class B share)
Scholastic Corp (a loss of 51 cents a share)
Shoe Carnival (21 cents a share)
Friday, March 21
Darden Restaurants
Movado Group
Tiffany & Co. ($1.54 a share)
Best wishes,
The Money and Markets Team
