Discount retailer Family Dollar Stores Inc. (FDO) reported its fiscal second quarter results this morning, topping analyst estimates and sending the stock higher in premarket trading.

For the quarter, Family Dollar reported it earned 98 cents per share, topping analyst estimates by a penny. During the same period last year, the company earned 81 cents per share.

With earnings season in full swing, the FOMC meeting on interest rates, the GDP estimate, and housing numbers due out, the coming week is shaping up to be a busy one. So here's a peek at what's on the economic calendar.

Monday

Quarterly reports from American Express (AXP) and McDonald's (MCD) will highlight Monday. Amgen (AMGN), CSX (CSX), Halliburton (HAL) and Texas Instruments (TXN) are also expected to report strong earnings results.

Just as we are hearing that retailers had a great December, we get news from the Conference Board that U.S. consumer confidence dropped to 52.5 in December. Expectations had been for an increase to 56.9, making for quite a disparity between expectation and reality.

The director of the Conference Board's consumer research center, Lynn Franco, noted that "Consumers' assessment of the current state of the economy and labor market remains tepid, and their outlook remains cautious." Franco added that signs suggest continuing growth for the economy, "but that the pace of growth will remain moderate."

Even as the year winds to a close this week, there are still a handful of economic releases on the schedule. Starting out on Monday, the Chicago Fed releases its Midwest Manufacturing Index for November.

Tuesday brings the final Consumer Confidence Index of the year, as well as the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index for October, the Richmond Fed's Business Surveys, and a look at chain store sales for the week leading up to Christmas.

Data on last week's initial jobless claims will be released on Thursday. And then Friday brings the New York NAPM Index and the Chicago Purchasing Managers Index.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Conference Board reported that consumer confidence rose in November to 54.1, from 49.9 in October. Those people expecting conditions to get better rose to 16.7% from 15.8%. Those expecting conditions to worsen fell to 12.1% from 14.4%. The same ratios were found for job expectations.

On the other hand, the Case-Shiller composite index of home prices fell 1.5% in the third quarter from a year ago. The index showed an even further drop of 2% in the third quarter when compared to the previous quarter.

Friday morning got off to a bearish start, a slump that wasn't helped much by the latest release of consumer sentiment data from Reuters and the University of Michigan (of course, this slow start turned positive thanks to the GDP).

Big Boo's report showed that consumer sentiment weakened from 68.2 in September to 67.7 in October. An earlier estimate for October was 67.9, with a MarketWatch poll showing an estimate for 68.5. The biggest problem facing consumers is the loss of jobs, which was the major reason for the drop in sentiment.

According to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index, home prices increased during July, marking the fourth-straight month. During July, the home price index increased 0.6% compared to June and 3.2% from a year earlier. While this is good news, seven of the cities surveyed saw monthly declines, while gains in a number of the cities were weaker than a month earlier.

There is fear that the home-buying boost provided by the government tax credits is wearing off. If this is the case, we could see weak demand cropping up from the housing sector. The fear is that the record number of foreclosures, job concerns and weak demand from buyers are pointing to weaker home sales in the coming months. Nevertheless, the news will be viewed as positive. That is simply the way that many analysts will cling to good news.

Most of this past week the stock market was erratic. News from Asian and American Markets was generally positive, sending the indexes higher, until unsettling news from the European Union let the air out of the tires, resulting in 100 point swings of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which ended Friday up about 50 points for the week at 10,850.36.

Each day started upbeat and then we would hear about Greek debt, bonds coming due, Germany pushing for IMF participation in any plan to help Greece. Finally when this looked to be settled, we then got news of economic turmoil in Portugal. This activity stimulated me to write the following recent commentary:

Cal-Maine Foods Inc. (CALM) is about the only company of note scheduled to release earning results in what will otherwise be a very quiet week between the holidays.

The three months that ended in November saw the poultry industry embroiled in an environment-related lawsuit, and Cal-Maine also ended its streak of special dividends when it reported a first-quarter loss.

Perhaps lost in all the Tiger Woods related news surrounding the company is Thursday's earnings announcement from Nike (NKE).

Late in the day, Nike announced second-quarter earnings of $375 million, or 76 cents per share. A year ago, Nike raked in $391 million, or 80 cents per share. Total revenue for Nike dropped 4% to $4.4 billion. The Street expected Nike to report earnings of 71 cents per share on revenue of $4.4 billion.