The housing market is in focus this week as the Housing Market Index is released on Monday, Housing Starts on Tuesday and Existing Home Sales on Thursday.
More retailers will report earnings, following last week’s stream, including Target, Home Depot, Lowe’s, PetSmart and Staples. Target is expected to follow Wal-Mart in reporting a drop in earnings after expenses related to last year’s data breach.
What follows are calendar highlights for the week. (All times are Eastern Daylight Time; forecasts by analysts/economists polled by Zacks Investment Research.)
Economic Reports
Monday, Aug. 18
Housing Market Index, 10 a.m.
Tuesday, Aug. 19
Consumer Price Index, 8:30 a.m.
Housing Starts, 8:30 a.m.
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Wednesday, Aug. 20
EIA Petroleum Status Report, 10:30 a.m.
FOMC Minutes, 2 p.m.
Thursday, Aug. 21
Jobless Claims, 8:30 a.m.
PMI Manufacturing Index Flash, 9:45 a.m.
Philadelphia Fed Survey, 10 a.m.
Existing Home Sales, 10 a.m.
Company Earnings Reports
Monday, Aug. 18
Urban Outfitters (Consensus estimate: 49 cents a share vs 51 cents a year earlier)
Tuesday, Aug. 19
Dick’s Sporting Goods (65 cents a share vs 71 cents)
Home Depot, Inc. ($1.45 a share vs $1.24)
TJX Cos. Inc. (73 cents a share vs 66 cents)
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Wednesday, Aug. 20
Hewlett-Packard (89 cents a share vs 86 cents)
J.M. Smucker Co. ($1.37 a share vs $1.24)
Lowe’s Cos., Inc. ($1.02 a share vs 88 cents)
PetSmart, Inc. (94 cents a share vs 89 cents)
Staples, Inc. (12 cents a share vs 17 cents)
Target Corp. (78 cents a share vs $1.19)
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Thursday, Aug. 21
Dollar Tree Inc. (65 cents a share vs 56 cents)
Hormel Foods Corp. (48 cents a share vs 42 cents)
Intuit Inc. (A loss of 5 cents a share vs a loss of 11 cents)
Ross Stores Inc. ($1.09 a share vs 98 cents)
Salesforce.com (a loss of 1 cent per share vs a loss of 9 cents)
Friday, August 22
Foot Locker Inc. (54 cents a share vs 46 cents)
Best wishes,
The Money and Markets Team