Next week is a short one on Wall Street, with U.S. markets closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving Day holiday, and trading ending early on Friday. Nevertheless, there's plenty of action on both the economic and earnings dockets to hold traders' attention. The marquee event will be the release of the minutes from the latest Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting -- which could potentially hold clues to a highly expected December rate hike.
Retail earnings will continue to roll in, too, ahead of the Black Friday sales event. Among the high-profile names stepping into the earnings confessional are Lowe's Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW) and Dollar Tree, Inc. (NASDAQ:DLTR), while results from cloud concern Salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) could also draw attention.
Below is a brief list of some key market events scheduled for the upcoming week. All earnings dates listed below are tentative and subject to change. Please check with each company's respective website for official reporting dates.
Leading indicators are the sole economic report slated for Monday, Nov. 20. Agilent Technologies (A), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Intuit (INTU), Palo Alto Networks (PANW), and Urban Outfitters (URBN) will report earnings.
Existing home sales will be released on Tuesday, Nov. 21. Earnings from Analog Devices (ADI), Burlington Stores (BURL), Campbell Soup (CPB), Chico's FAS (CHS), Dollar Tree (DLTR), DSW (DSW), GameStop (GME), Guess? (GES), Hormel Foods (HRL), HP (HPQ), Lowe's (LOW), and Salesforce.com (CRM) are due.
The Fed minutes highlight a busy day of economic data on Wednesday, Nov. 22, which will also include durable goods orders, the weekly crude inventories update, the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment survey, and the early release of weekly jobless claims due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Deere & Company (DE) will step up to the earnings plate.
Markets will be closed on Thursday, Nov. 23, for Thanksgiving, and will close early on Friday, Nov. 24, at 1 p.m. ET. In that abbreviated session, though, Wall Street will hear Markit's flash composite purchasing managers index (PMI) for November, while preliminary Black Friday sales will likely draw attention to retail stocks. There are no earnings of note.