Did you feel a little twinge last week? Sure you did. Think about it. It probably felt like a noose tightening around your neck, or a fire burning the wallet in your back pocket. "The Greek" believes we finally crossed the critical oil price threshold last week, and nobody noticed. We are of course talking about the price point where energy really starts to impact economic demand.

It developed sort of like how a caged dog, one within an invisible electronic fence, feels a shock as he approaches or crosses it. Americans likely felt a similar threshold surpassed last week. It certainly was a hard one to cross, after all, it took months of price rise past the points most economists thought would do it. It seems we finally reached the critical point for oil and gasoline pricing, where individual consumers will begin to seriously consider conservation and alternative energy resources. More on that in a minute...

Last Week

Stocks moved lower throughout last week, as rising oil prices raised broader economic concern. The Dow Jones Industrials moved 3.9% lower, while the S&P 500 fell 3.5% and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 3.3%. The decline was broad reaching, as seen by the similar moves across the diverse indices.

The blame for the tough week clearly fell upon oil. Crude oil futures for July delivery started the week just under $127, and ended it at $130.51, touching a high of $135 on Thursday. Meanwhile, just ahead of the big Memorial Day weekend, one that is well known for motor vehicle traffic, gasoline prices skyrocketed as well.

June futures for gasoline started last Monday morning at $3.23 a gallon on the Mercantile Exchange, and closed Friday at $3.32. The good news is that oil and gasoline prices backed off Thursday’s highs to close the week a step lower. However, stocks found no solace in that news, since the slide likely came on profit-taking, not fundamental reasoning. However, the highs probably likewise benefited from trading momentum, so the slip was good news just the same.

Wednesday helped to fuel the most recent energy spike, as the Energy Information Administration reported a weekly draw of 5.4 million barrels of oil from storage. Meanwhile, the media had much to feed the frightened with as well. Oil executives were grilled on Capitol Hill last week by a Senate panel. The Senators highlighted the contrast of oil company profits and excessive executive compensation with the inflation burdened American public and an economy that teeters on recession. At the same time, Congress passed an insanely dangerous measure that might lead to legal suit against OPEC. Seems Congress never heard the saying about not biting the hand that feeds you.

The Good News

However, as the stock market worried about the impact of high gas and other prices, it likely also foreshadowed a price-induced conservation of energy that should decrease demand for it. In other words, a threshold looks to have been passed, where people will actually now seriously consider travel distance and other fuel expenditures in their plans. This seems to indicate that petroleum might trade in a range in the near term. You’ll want to check into the Wall Street Greek website this week, as we are preparing an in-depth petroleum market report.

The Week Ahead

The abbreviated trading week still holds a powerful concentration of economic data on the schedule.

Tuesday

Consumer Confidence for the month of May was reported Tuesday morning, falling to 57.2, versus consensus expectations for a reading of 60.0. That compares with a reading of 62.3 in April.

Also reported on Tuesday, New Home Sales for April follow Friday’s Existing Home Sales data, which while down, still beat expectations. We expected that seasonal impact and dramatically low recent levels to compare against might offer a positive surprise in this report. Sales ran at an annual pace of 522K in March, missing that month’s consensus expectation by a mile. When reported this morning, April sales ran at a pace of 526K, up slightly.

The S&P Case Shiller Index built upon the weak sales data, showing that home prices continued to moderate in March and of course in the first quarter (-14.1% from last year's period).

Tuesday kicks off the shortened week's earnings schedule, including reports from Borders Group (NYSE: BGP), Donaldson (NYSE: DCI), Jamba Juice (Nasdaq: JMBA), Vodafone Group PLC (NYSE: VOD), Bank of Montreal (NYSE: BMO), Bank of Nova Scotia (NYSE: BNS), Cogent (Nasdaq: COGT), Modine Manufacturing (NYSE: MOD), On Track Innovations (Nasdaq: OTIV), Shanda Interactive (Nasdaq: SNDA), SourceForge (Nasdaq: LNUX), StealthGas (Nasdaq: GASS), Versant (Nasdaq: VSNT) and WuXi PharmaTech (NYSE: WX).

Wednesday

Wednesday’s Durable Goods report and Thursday’s Corporate Profits seem poised to stab economic hopes in the back. Most of the preceding data on the subject of corporate profits has indicated that they've been sickly this past quarter. Let's not mince words.

Regarding durables, Bloomberg's consensus expects a monthly decrease of 1.1% for April orders. That would compare with a 0.3% decline in March. We like to remind readers that just-in-time production-to-delivery processes, supportive technology and fluid distribution channels have helped companies to manage inventories at an increasingly efficient rate. So, inventory levels might fluctuate in a volatile fashion from month to month as a result. Four consecutive months of decline, however, clearly reflect the softening domestic demand, capacity consolidation and economic weakness we've seen this year.

Minneapolis Fed-Man Gary Stern and Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher are both scheduled to address audiences on Wednesday. Barron's correctly reports that Fisher's comments might offer some interesting perspective, as he has dissented against rate cuts three times in recent history. What he has to say about inflation might prove enlightening, if he speaks openly.

The weekly same store sales data reported by the International Council of Shopping Centers - UBS, gets pushed back a day this week due to the holiday. So, you can look for that very important and under followed metric on Wednesday morning this week. In case you missed it, last week's report showed a sales spike of 1.6% year-over-year. The Mortgage Bankers' Association reports on mortgage activity Wednesday morning as usual, however, we find little insight from the report still. Later, it will be interesting to follow how mortgage rates might rise with inflation, thus curtailing housing market recovery.

The EIA usually reports Petroleum Status on Wednesday, but this report is often pushed back a day during shortened weeks, and this week will be no exception. Look for oil market news on Thursday.

Wednesday's earnings schedule includes American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE: AEO), Chico's FAS (NYSE: CHS), Coldwater Creek (Nasdaq: CWTR), Dollar Tree Stores (Nasdaq: DLTR), Dress Barn (Nasdaq: DBRN), Jo-Ann Stores (NYSE: JAS), Men's Wearhouse (NYSE: MW), National Bank of Greece (NYSE: NBG), Polo Ralph Lauren (NYSE: RL), AFC Enterprises (Nasdaq: AFCE), Apollo Investment (Nasdaq: AINV), Applied Signal (Nasdaq: APSG), CBRL Group (Nasdaq: CBRL), China Nepstar Chain Drugstore (NYSE: NPD), Daktronics (Nasdaq: DAKT), Finlay Enterprises (Nasdaq: FNLY), Jinpan Int'l (AMEX: JST), RBC Bearings (Nasdaq: ROLL), Shamir Optical (Nasdaq: SHMR), Synovis Life (Nasdaq: SYNO), TIVO Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO), Toronto Dominion Bank (NYSE: TD) and more.

Thursday

The top story on CNBC Thursday morning should be the first revision of Q1 GDP. We could see the number reported in contraction territory or close to it, from its first reporting at +0.6%. This report looks to be highly influential to market direction and even medium term market movement, as it addresses one of two key market concerns very directly. Those two key concerns are of course economic growth and inflation. Economists well-informed by other since revised and late reported economic data are actually forecasting an upward revision for GDP, to 1.0% growth for Q1.

As indicated earlier, Corporate Profits will also be reported on Thursday morning, and most data have offered indication of a dramatic decline in corporate earnings. Profits are finding pressure from both directions. The soft economic environment is impacting the top line and rising costs are squeezing margins at the same time. For this reason, economic recovery seems limited in opportunity, and stocks upward potential likewise capped.

Weekly jobless claims are due on schedule, and Bloomberg's consensus expects 370K or so new benefits filers. Last week's report showed 365K. The Help-Wanted Index is also due, but its significance has been reduced by the advent of online job search tools. We suspect there will be a second wave of job market decline in the months ahead as pressure mounts on corporate executives to preserve shareholder value.

The Energy Information Administration will report on Petroleum Status on Thursday this week. The data will of course prove an important news bit, and especially so after a draw from inventory of 5.4 million barrels last week. Natural gas will be reported upon on its regular schedule, meaning the two reports reach market simultaneously this week, offering a powerful concentration of energy data all at once. At the start of the week, energy prices were already backing off recent highs, as it becomes plainly apparent that the demand sensitive threshold has been reached.

Ben Bernanke will perhaps yodel his speech on liquidity in Switzerland on Thursday, while Tim Geithner addresses a group in New York. With food shortage and inflation in focus, the OECD and the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization will issue their 2008 outlook on agriculture.

Thursday's earnings schedule includes Costco (Nasdaq: COST), Dell (Nasdaq: DELL), H. J. Heinz (NYSE: HNZ), Hellenic Telecommunications (NYSE: OTE), J. Crew Group (NYSE: JCG), Joy Global (Nasdaq: JOYG), Sears Holdings (Nasdaq: SHLD), Ansoft (Nasdaq: ANST), Big Lots (NYSE: BIG), Canadian Imperial Bank (NYSE: CM), Caraco Pharmaceutical (AMEX: CPD), dELiA's (Nasdaq: DLIA), DSW Inc. (NYSE: DSW), DynCorp (NYSE: DCP), eLong (Nasdaq: LONG), Esterline Technologies (NYSE: ESL), Fred's (Nasdaq: FRED), Genesco (NYSE: GCO), Golar LNG (Nasdaq: GLNG), Gottschalks (NYSE: GOT), HEICO Corp. (NYSE: HEI), Iteris (AMEX: ITI), Man Group plc (Nasdaq: MNGPF.PK), Marvell Technology (Nasdaq: MRVL), Monro Muffler (Nasdaq: MNRO), Movado (NYSE: MOV), Netezza (NYSE: NZ), Omnivision (Nasdaq: OVTI), QAD Inc. (Nasdaq: QADI), Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE: RY), SeaChange Int'l (Nasdaq: SEAC), Shoe Carnival (Nasdaq: SCVL), Sigma Designs (Nasdaq: SIGM), Sycamore Networks (Nasdaq: SCMR), The Descartes Systems (Nasdaq: DSGX), Wind River Systems (Nasdaq: WIND) and XETA Technologies (Nasdaq: XETA).

Friday

Get ready to get busy on Friday, with a grand slam of reports due, including Personal Income & Outlays, the Chicago area manufacturing report, University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment and Farm Prices to close it out.

The closely followed and very important Personal Income & Outlays Report will be released at 8:30 a.m. Bloomberg's consensus forecasts personal income growth of 0.2% for April. Income growth is unfortunately indirectly pressured by international competition for goods and services that leads American firms to seek cost consolidation. American Axle, which settled with the UAW last week, suffered through a long strike for the sake of cost reduction, achieving a significant savings in wage rates and in pension benefit liability. The length that American Axle was willing to go is a testament to the significance of market force pressures.

The big headline on Friday will of course be personal consumption expenditures, as the market seeks to understand just how much the American consumer is actually tightening his belt. Bloomberg's surveyed economists see an increase of 0.2% for April. Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH) was quoted in Barron's seeing a 0.3% increase. Do not neglect the very important impact of price rise on the spending increase. The real spending change is what matters here, or that excluding inflation.

The University of Michigan/Reuters weighs in on Consumer Sentiment on Friday, and the consensus sees the May measure reaching 59.5 (same as the earlier check), compared to 62.6 in April.

Chicago area manufacturing gets a check up on Friday as well, and economists see the regional index at 48.5 in May, versus 48.3 in April. Farm prices are also on tap, marking the second chew on food inflation this week.

Treasury Secretary Paulson is scheduled to visit the Middle East to appease foreign investor concern, as Congress discusses the issue of sovereign investment. It's likely the issue came up during President Bush's visit, and so he's now sending Paulson to further quell concern.

Friday's short list of earnings reports includes China Finance Online (Nasdaq: JRJC), Graham Corp. (AMEX: GHM), Kirkland's (Nasdaq: KIRK), Lion's Gate Entertainment (NYSE: LGF), Medical Action Industries (Nasdaq: MDCI) and Tiffany & Co. (NYSE: TIF).

Please join us all week long as we comment on the stock market, commodity, currency and economic environment.

See our disclosure at the Wall Street Greek website.

The Greek's Week Ahead has been engineered to prepare you for the events that could impact your portfolio this week.

At times like these, when the Fed seeks to stimulate economic growth, the sector that should benefit most is growth oriented and "low quality" shares in our view. However, we view the current market environment illusory, and providing a sort of growth hoax that we expect will be exposed after the Fed's Halloween meeting.

Expansionary measures are meant to help firms find capital to finance growth at times when a little extra incentive is useful. In that type of environment, the firms that benefit most are the ones financing growth in ways other than through the use of operating cash flow. These are riskier firms, the kind without earnings but with high hopes and debt. At the risk of getting too technical... They benefit also because most, if not all, of their value is found in the terminal portion of the discounted cash flow model, the part outside of the forecast period and most sensitive to changes in cost of capital.

In the period after the start of the Fed's most recent expansionary spurring, you remember the one after the tech bubble burst in 2000-2002, there was an initial premature market rebound before the realization of a tough environment sent stocks lower. However in 2003, when it was clear Fed support would help the economy find traction, it was the "low quality" shares that outperformed. That period taught me a lesson that I noted well. I learned that lesson as I watched a sell recommendation rise ahead of many of my better run "buy" names. That sell idea that burned the painful, though useful, memory into my young analytical skull was FuelCell Technology (Nasdaq: FCEL), which soared 99% that year. The company was still far from showing signs of operational success, but the stock soared as "low quality" names outperformed. It was a clear case where not so hot operations (read bad company) matched with a scorching hot stock (read good stock).

The current period is considered by many, if not most, as one characterized by the start of Fed expansionary efforts, and this may be behind the outperformance of "riskier" industries of late. For instance, the S&P Biotechnology group is up 10.3% in the 13 weeks through October 5. Over that same 13 week period, the Information Technology sector (+4.9%) is second in performance only to energy (+5.5%), but $80+ oil has a lot to do with that sector's leadership.

I believe the rug (or ruse) of Fed bias is about to be pulled out from under the market. If this latest Fed maneuver is representative of a "one and done" type move, as I outlined on the day of the cut, then the current market run may be short-lived for these names. The hoax would be exposed and the old favorite defensive names would come back to favor, while riskier stocks would lose their luster just as they were starting to polish up. The way to play this sometime between my publishing of this article and a week ahead of Halloween, is to go short the industries that got hot around the cut, and long the names that got cold around that same time.

Now let's take a look at the week ahead...

Outside of earnings season revving up into full swing, a rather light event week kicks off Monday with the 8:30 a.m. EDT reporting of the Empire State Manufacturing Index. The October measure of the state of manufacturing in the New York area is seen reaching 12.5 in October, down from September's reading of 14.7, according to Bloomberg's consensus of economists. Last month's figure was a significant disappointment, with expectations for a reading of 20.

The day marks the debut of CNBC's new formidable rival, the Fox Business Network. Markets will be closed in Argentina, Chile and Columbia, marking Columbus Day. I guess it took him a few more days to discover South America? Did you know he landed first in the Bahamas? In the evening, Ben Bernanke will keep some economists attuned to the wire as he speaks to the Economic Club of New York, no doubt over a New York strip steak.

Monday's earnings slate is headlined by Citigroup (NYSE: C), as the big banks take center stage, or fall off it. Many expect banks to report big charge-offs this quarter, related to credit market woes. This is an important reason why expectations for earnings growth are so dull this quarter. The hugely important financial sector accounts for over 20% of the market cap of the S&P 500 Index. Another interesting earnings report will arrive from toy maker Mattel (NYSE: MAT). This is the company with all the lead paint recalls, and that same firm that apologized to China for publicizing it so conscientiously when it accepted responsibility... It seems the Chinese would have rather kept it all hush hush. We found it somewhat surprising that MAT's earnings estimates for this quarter and next have not changed over the last 90 days as a result. While analysts may be missing the obvious, seems investors have not, as Mattel's shares are well off their springtime highs.

Others reporting on Monday include Alfacel (Nasdaq: ACEL), Badger Meter (AMEX: BMI), Corgi Int'l (Nasdaq: CRGI), Eaton (NYSE: ETN), Enzo Biochem (NYSE: ENZ), First Defiance (Nasdaq: FDEF), Genentech (NYSE: DNA), Intraware (Nasdaq: ITRA), Lakeland Financial (Nasdaq: LKFN), Macatawa Bank (Nasdaq: MCBC), New Oriental Education (NYSE: EDU), Nuveen Investments (NYSE: JNC), Robbins and Myers (NYSE: RBN), Royal Phillips Electronics (NYSE: PHG), Sonic (Nasdaq: SONC), Suffolk Bancorp (Nasdaq: SUBK), Sun Bancorp (Nasdaq: SNBC), Traffix (Nasdaq: TRFX), W.W. Grainger (NYSE: GWW), Werner Enterprises (Nasdaq: WERN) and Zila (Nasdaq: ZILA).

In light of the approaching Federal Open Market Committee meeting on Halloween, be sure to catch Tuesday's weekly same-store sales report from the International Council of Shopping Centers-UBS. Last week's report showed very soft year-to-year sales growth of just 2.1%, and the retail sales report for September showed misleading strength inflated by transactions of expensive gasoline and unexplained auto sales improvement.

Industrial Production for the month of September is expected to increase 0.1%, according to Bloomberg's consensus. That's down from last month's 0.2% increase and July's 0.3% growth. Economists are still figuring out whether this trend is indicative of cautious production ahead of softening domestic end-demand, or change driven by real economic downturn today. Capacity utilization is seen slipping just modestly though, to 82.1% from 82.2%.

Treasury International Capital for the month of August is set for report Tuesday. Foreign demand for long-term U.S. securities dipped in the last report to $19.2 billion in July, from $120.9 billion in June. With the dollar sinking, one would expect September's report to show up weak, no matter what happened in August. This is likely something the Federal Reserve will pay attention to, and certainly the Treasury Secretary will. Speaking of the dollar, the Bank of Canada is set to decide what to do with its interest rates, and given signs of Canadian economic weakness cited in the FOMC meeting minutes released last week, we would not expect action detrimental to the U.S. dollar relationship.

The National Association of Homebuilders' Housing Market Index is expected to set a new all-time low in October, according to Barron's and Lehman Brothers, after its recent record breaking bottom of 20 in September of this year.

Tuesday's earnings report schedule will be headlined by a couple of tech giants, as Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) and Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) report. With the return of renaissance man and CEO Jerry Yang, it should be interesting to see what changes are in store at Yahoo! if any. Analysts are looking for per share results of $0.08, versus last year's $0.11 quarterly tally.

The rest of the day's earnings reporters include A.O. Smith (NYSE: AOS), ADTRAN (Nasdaq: ADTN), AMB Property (NYSE: AMB), AmeriServ Financial (Nasdaq: ASRV), BOK Financial (Nasdaq: BOKF), Champion Enterprises (NYSE: CHB), Community Trust (Nasdaq: CTBI), CORUS Bankshares (Nasdaq: CORS), Crown Holdings (NYSE: CCK), CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX), Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL), Diamondrock Hospitality (NYSE: DRH), Domino's Inc. (NYSE: DPZ), Enterprise Financial (Nasdaq: EFSC), Equity Lifestyle Properties (NYSE: ELS), Exfo Electro-Optical (Nasdaq: EXFO), First Place Financial (Nasdaq: FPFC), Forest Labs (NYSE: FRX), FSI International (Nasdaq: FSII), Fulton Financial (Nasdaq: FULT), Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea (NYSE: GAP), Hancock Holding (Nasdaq: HBHC), Integra Bank (Nasdaq: IBNK), IBM (NYSE: IBM), Johnson and Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Keycorp (NYSE: KEY), Lifecore Biomedical (Nasdaq: LCBM), Linear Tech (Nasdaq: LLTC), MEDTOX Scientific (Nasdaq: MTOX), National Penn Bancshares (Nasdaq: NPBC), Palm Harbor Homes (Nasdaq: PHHM), Polaris (NYSE: PII), POSCO (NYSE: PKX), Regions Financial (NYSE: RF), Renaissance Learning (Nasdaq: RLRN), Renasant (Nasdaq: RNST), RLI Corp. (NYSE: RLI), ST Bancorp (Nasdaq: STBA), Sandy Spring Bancorp (Nasdaq: SASR), Seagate Tech (NYSE: STX), SPANSION (Nasdaq: SPSN), Stanley Furniture (Nasdaq: STLY), State Street (NYSE: STT), Steel Dynamics (Nasdaq: STLD), Supervalu (NYSE: SVU), McClatchy (NYSE: MNI), Thornburg Mortgage (NYSE: TMA), USANA Health (Nasdaq: USNA), Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), West Coast Bancorp (Nasdaq: WCBO) and Westamerica (Nasdaq: WABC).

On Wednesday, we'll get a look at how higher producer prices may have impacted consumer prices. It's more likely that higher energy prices found their way into the Core CPI figure than they did in the Core PPI, reported last week up just 0.1%. The headline PPI measure was up 1.1% on changes in food and energy prices. Regarding the September CPI metric, Bloomberg's consensus expects a 0.2% increase across the board. While it's not the Fed favored metric, pay close attention to whether the year-over-year CPI growth fits into the Fed tolerable range of 1%-2%.

September Housing Starts are expected to fall to a 1.3 million annual pace, down from August's 1.33 million, thus continuing the well-documented slide of housing. On that note, the Mortgage Bankers Association makes its regular Purchase Applications report early Wednesday, but it will likely be muted by the more important Housing Starts data.

With oil rising against all odds, at least on the Greek's book, the EIA will report its regular inventory data at the usual 10:30 time. You would think that with the economy slowing, oil prices should trim some fat, but as the dollar weakens, the relative value of commodities rise.

At 2:00 p.m. the obscure sounding but actually important Beige Book will display a compilation of the Fed's regional reports. Much can be gleaned here about how the Fed is thinking heading into the Halloween meeting.

We may get some anecdotal evidence about the state of employment on Wednesday, with the simultaneous earnings reports from Labor Ready (NYSE: LRW) and Manpower (NYSE: MAN).

The remainder of Wednesday's earnings reports include Abbott Labs (NYSE: ABT), Alliance Data (NYSE: ADS), Altria Group (NYSE: MO), AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR), Amylin Pharma (Nasdaq: AMLN), AptarGroup (NYSE: ATR), Arena Pharma (Nasdaq: ARNA), BlackRock (NYSE: BLK), Cavium Networks (Nasdaq: CAVM), CIT Group (NYSE: CIT), Citrix Systems (Nasdaq: CTXS), City National (NYSE: CYN), Colonial Bank (NYSE: CNB), Comerica (NYSE: CMA), Consumer Portfolio Services (Nasdaq: CPSS), Cubist Pharma (Nasdaq: CBST), Datalink (Nasdaq: DTLK), Downey Financial (NYSE: DSL), E*TRADE (Nasdaq: ETFC), East West Bancorp (Nasdaq: EWBC), eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY), Exponent (Nasdaq: EXPO), First Cash (Nasdaq: FCFS), Gannett (NYSE: GCI), Gramercy Cap (NYSE: GKK), Healthcare Services (Nasdaq: HCSG), Healthways (Nasdaq: HWAY), Illinois Tool Works (NYSE: ITW), IMS Health (NYSE: RX), Intersil Corp. (Nasdaq: ISIL), J.P. Morgan (NYSE: JPM), Knight Capital (Nasdaq: NITE), Knoll (NYSE: KNL), LaSalle Hotel (NYSE: LHO), LeCroy (Nasdaq: LCRY), Leggett & Platt (NYSE: LEG), Logitech (Nasdaq: LOGI), Lufkin (Nasdaq: LUFK), Marshall & Isley (NYSE: MI), MB Financial (Nasdaq: MBFI), MGI Pharma (Nasdaq: MOGN), MGIC Investment (NYSE: MTG), MoneyGram (NYSE: MGI), Navigant Consulting (NYSE: NCI), Noble Corp. (NYSE: NE), Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS), NVE Corp. (Nasdaq: NVEC), Pacific Continental (Nasdaq: PCBK), Packaging Corp. of America (NYSE: PKG), Partners Trust Financial (Nasdaq: PRTR), People's United (Nasdaq: PBCT), Piper Jaffray (NYSE: PJC), Polycom (Nasdaq: PLCM), Rurban Financial (Nasdaq: RBNF), S.Y. Bancorp (Nasdaq: SYBT), Sovereign Bancorp (NYSE: SOV), Spartan Stores (Nasdaq: SPTN), Stryker (NYSE: SYK), Teradyne (NYSE: TER), Texas Capital (Nasdaq: TCBI), Allstate Corp. (NYSE: ALL), Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), Thomas Group (Nasdaq: TGIS), Torchmark (NYSE: TMK), United Community Financial (Nasdaq: UCFC), United Tech (NYSE: UTX), Universal Forest (Nasdaq: UFPI), Valley National (NYSE: VLY), Valmont (NYSE: VMI), Virginia Commerce (Nasdaq: VCBI), Votorantim Celulose (NYSE: VCP), Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM), WD-40 (Nasdaq: WDFC) and Wesbanco (Nasdaq: WSBC).

On Thursday, Weekly Initial Jobless Claims are seen measuring 312,000 in the Labor Department's latest reporting. Last week, the list of new benefits filers amounted to 308,000. Remember, this list does NOT include old slaves to the corporate box, who have been recently converted to babble producing bloggers in an empty box, like muah? Hey, if you can't laugh at yourself, then you probably have not made a blog post at 3 a.m. yet!

The Conference Board will produce its Leading Indicators Index still too late for the Fed to use in its new effort to predict economic change (God bless em). The month-to-month change in the figure is expected by Bloomberg's consensus to show increase of 0.3% in September, after a 0.6% decrease in August.

The EIA Natural Gas inventory report is due at 10:30, while hurricane season comes to an end. At noon, the Philly Fed Index should show Philadelphia area manufacturing sentiment decreased versus the prior month. Bloomberg published a consensus estimate for a reading of 7.0 this time around, compared to 10.9 in September.

Thursday is the day Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) reports, and it should be declared Googlemania day with the amount of media coverage it will likely attract, especially now that Fox and CNBC will compete for viewer attention. The Greek would rather look at lower key story. McGraw-Hill (NYSE: MHP) is due to report on Thursday, after reacting to government scrutiny of its Standard & Poor's division by dropping the segment's CEO. It should be interesting to see if there was any economic impact to the firm, but we suspect the volatility that struck credit markets may have helped the credit rating business, if the drop of trading volume did not outweigh the need for risk measures (however outdated the Congressional Committee reviewing the situation may view those).

The remainder of Thursday's earnings schedule includes A. Schulman (Nasdaq: SHLM), ABC Bancorp (Nasdaq: ABCB), Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD), AMCORE Financial (Nasdaq: AMFI), American Standard (NYSE: ASD), AMETEK (NYSE: AME), Arbitron (NYSE: ARB), Associated Banc-Corp (Nasdaq: ASBC), Astoria Financial (NYSE: AF), Avici Systems (Nasdaq: AVCI), BancFirst (Nasdaq: BANF), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), Bank of New York (NYSE: BK), Baxter Int'l (NYSE: BAX), BB&T (NYSE: BBT), Briggs & Stratton (NYSE: BGG), Brookline Bancorp (Nasdaq: BRKL), Build a Bear (NYSE: BBW), Cadence Financial (Nasdaq: CADE), California Micro Devices (Nasdaq: CAMD), Capital One Financial (NYSE: COF), Citizens Banking (Nasdaq: CRBC), CoBiz (Nasdaq: COBZ), Community Banks (Nasdaq: CMTY), Computer Programs & Systems (Nasdaq: CPSI), Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL), Cree (Nasdaq: CREE), Cybersource (Nasdaq: CYBS), Cypress Semi (NYSE: CY), Cytec (NYSE: CYT), Danaher (NYSE: DHR), Dow Jones & Co. (NYSE: DJ), Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY), F.N.B. Corp. (NYSE: FNB), Fairchild Semi (NYSE: FCS), Fidelity Southern (Nasdaq: LION), First Commonwealth Financial (NYSE: FCF), First Financial (Nasdaq: FFIN), First Horizon National (NYSE: FHN), First Merchants (Nasdaq: FRME), Genuine Parts (NYSE: GPC), Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq: GILD), Great Southern (Nasdaq: GSBC), HNI Corp. (NYSE: HNI), Home Bancshares (Nasdaq: HOMB), Horizon Fin'l (Nasdaq: HRZB), Huntington Bancshares (Nasdaq: HBAN), ICU Medical (Nasdaq: ICUI), IDEX (NYSE: IEX), Informatica (Nasdaq: INFA), Insteel Industries (Nasdaq: IIIN), InsWeb (INSW), Intuitive Surgical (Nasdaq: ISRG), IONA Tech (Nasdaq: IONA), Journal Register (NYSE: JRC), KVH Industries (Nasdaq: KVHI), Landstar System (Nasdaq: LSTR), Luby's (NYSE: LUB), Media General (NYSE: MEG), Mission West (NYSE: MSW), Modine Manufacturing (NYSE: MOD), Molex (Nasdaq: MOLX), Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Novartis (NYSE: NVS), Nucor (NYSE: NUE), Oakley (NYSE: OO), Omnicell (Nasdaq: OMCL), Orbital Sciences (NYSE: ORB), Packeteer (Nasdaq: PKTR), Parker Hannifin (NYSE: PH), Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), PMC-Sierra (Nasdaq: PMCS), PNC Financial (NYSE: PNC), PPG Industries (NYSE: PPG), Preferred Bank (Nasdaq: PFBC), Provident Bankshares (Nasdaq: PBKS), Reliance Steel (NYSE: RS), RF Monolithics (Nasdaq: RFMI), Rimage (Nasdaq: RIMG), Robert Half (NYSE: RHI), Rush Enterprises (RUSHB), SanDisk (Nasdaq: SNDK), SAP AG (NYSE: SAP), Simmons First National (Nasdaq: SFNC), South Financial (Nasdaq: TSFG), Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV), Southwest Bancorp (Nasdaq: OKSB), St. Jude Medical (NYSE: STJ), Strattec Security (Nasdaq: STRT), SunPower (Nasdaq: SPWR), SunTrust (NYSE: STI), Tempur Pedic (NYSE: TPX), Textron (NYSE: TXT), Hershey (NYSE: HSY), McGraw Hill (NYSE: MHP), Ultratech (Nasdaq: UTEK), Umpqua (Nasdaq: UMPQ), Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP), UnionBanCal (NYSE: UB), UnitedHealth (NYSE: UNH), USA Truck (Nasdaq: USAK), Vascular Solutions (Nasdaq: VASC), VF Corp. (NYSE: VFC), Washington Federal (Nasdaq: WFSL), Watsco Inc. (NYSE: WSO), WESCO Int'l (NYSE: WCC), Western Alliance (NYSE: WAL), Winmark (Nasdaq: WINA), Wyeth (NYSE: WYE), Xilinx (Nasdaq: XLNX), Zhone Tech (Nasdaq: ZHNE) and Zions Bancorp (Nasdaq: ZION).

China's H-Shares get a day off, as the Hong Kong market is closed on Friday. The Group of Seven finance minsters is set to meet in Washington at the end of the week, and many experts are anticipating pressure on Treasury Secretary Paulson to do something about the troubled dollar. William Poole and Ben Bernanke will address a group together on Friday, as they discuss "Monetary Policy Under Uncertainty." We wonder if Mr. Poole will define his usage of the word "calamity" and if he understands now when and when not to use such language.

Reporting earnings at the week's close, look for news from Dow global growth stories, Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) and Honeywell (NYSE: HON). The remainder of the schedule includes 3M (NYSE: MMM), AMCOL (NYSE: ACO), Arch Coal (NYSE: ACI), Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX), Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT), Dime Community Bancshares (Nasdaq: DCOM), Donegal Group (Nasdaq: DGICA), Fifth Third Bancorp (Nasdaq: FITB), Harley-Davidson (NYSE: HOG), ICICI Bank (NYSE: IBN), Kensey Nash (Nasdaq: KNSY), Mohawk Industries (NYSE: MHK), New York Community Bancorp (NYSE: NYB), Old Second Bancorp (Nasdaq: OSBC), Overstock (Nasdaq: OSTK), Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB), Sensient Tech (NYSE: SXT), Sonoco Products (NYSE: SON), Student Loan (NYSE: STU), Wachovia (NYSE: WB), Wilmington Trust (NYSE: WL), Wipro Ltd. (NYSE: WIT) and Xerox (NYSE: XRX). We hope you again found value in our weekly market-moving event planner, and look forward to keeping you updated all week long.

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