For next week, Wall Street will be affected by two major outside influences -- the Presidential and Congressional Elections, and some important economic data. Also, next week is also the last major week for the third quarter earnings season.
Monday
The highest-profile data for Monday are on motor-vehicle sales. The individual auto makers will report their October individual sales starting at 12 p.m. Eastern time, and the numbers are expected to be grim. In total, the September sales were down 1.22 million from a year ago and October -- which is the month where the credit markets got really bad -- is expected to be worse.
General Motors (GM) and Ford (F) will likely trade heavily on the news.
In the earnings schedule, the biggest name to report is credit card issuer MasterCard (MA), which is expected to report a profit of $2.27 a share after the bell. Its competitor, Visa (V), reported decent earnings this week, so traders will be looking to see how consumer spending patterns affected MasterCard.
Other major names include Viacom (VIA), which owns MTV and Comedy Central. Viacom is expected to report earnings of 56 cents a share after the bell.
Utility company Allegheny Energy (AYE), Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (GT), and food distributor Sysco (SYY) report Monday as well.
Tuesday
Outside of the political sphere, it should be fairly quiet day for Wall Street on Election Day. The biggest name that reports is financial firm UBS (UBS), which isn’t even a U.S. company. The Swiss bank reports Tuesday at 1 a.m. EST.
Here in the states, ethanol and food processor Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. (ADM) is expected to report a profit of 67 cents a share. ADM may be able to give some good outlook on the future of the alternative energy business, especially in light of oil being down more than half from its all-time high.
Other companies who report include pizza giant Papa John’s (PZZA) and comic book and entertainment company Marvel (MVL).
With regard to the election, the stock markets will be closed before any states are declared for Obama or McCain, so stocks will probably not move on political reasons on Tuesday.
Wednesday
Wall Street gets its chance to react to Election Day.
While some may say that a Democratic sweep may cause a knee-jerk reaction on Wednesday, Wall Street studies the same polls as the rest of the nation. Traders tend to price in things like elections just like they do for any other contingency before the actual event ever happens. It’s the unexpected that cause violent moves in the market -- and it's unclear whether the market would go down based on political election results, anyway.
The biggest names that report come from the media and technology industries. Time Warner (TWX) and its sister company Time Warner Cable (TWC) will report before the bell, while News Corp (NWS), the parent company of Fox Business, will report after the closing bell.
Time Warner is expected to report earnings of 27 cents a share while News Corp. is expected to report earnings of 23 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters.
The technology names are all after the bell and will impact Thursday’s trading more than Wednesday’s trading. Technology bellwether Cisco Systems (CSCO) is expected to report earnings of 36 cents a share. Cisco, because it sells routers and other technology infrastructure products, is considered a key company to watch for the industry.
Other technology-heavy names include videogame maker Activision Blizzard (ATVI) and Web-commerce staple InterActiveCorp (IACI).
On the economic side of things, traders get the first of three of labor market-related reports. The ADP Employment survey is sometimes cited a market-moving report, but its ability to predict the Labor Department's report a couple of days later has been lackluster for several months now.
Thursday
Thursday is mostly quiet on the economic and earnings front. Wall Street will continue to digest the results from Election Day as close local and national contests are sorted out.
The biggest name that might affect overnight markets might be Toyota Motor Co. (TM), which is expected to report a profit of $2.05 a share.
The market also gets media giant Disney (DIS) after the market opens. Analysts expect the Dow member to report earnings of 49 cents a share.
Wall Street gets the second of this week’s labor reports. Initial jobless claims come every Thursday and tend to move the market heavily. Economists are looking for jobless claims to fall by 5,000 next week.
Other companies that report include Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA), NASDAQ OMX (NDAQ) and Anheuser-Busch (BUD).
Friday
It’s time for the “mother of all economic data.”
The Labor Department will release its jobs report on Friday at 8:30 a.m., and the market always moves heavily on the news.
Economists are expecting that the nation lost 175,000 jobs in October, on top of the 159,000 jobs that were lost on September, moving the country’s unemployment rate up to 6.3%. If the number of jobs lost or the unemployment rate comes in outside the consensus, expect a broad market reaction.
Struggling auto maker Ford (F) will report on Friday before the market opens. Analysts expect the struggling Detroit company to report a loss of 93 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters.
Other names to report including electrical utility company Consolidated Edison (ED), and telecommunications company Sprint-Nextel (S).
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