Quarterly reports from Oracle (ORCL), Discover (DFS) and Tiffany (TIF) will highlight news on the earnings front this week.

Elsewhere on the economic calendar, the focus will be on housing, with existing home sales data due from the National Association of Realtors on Monday, new home sales numbers from the Census Bureau on Wednesday and data on housing starts released on Thursday.

Also watch for durable goods orders in February and the final GDP for the fourth quarter.

Morning Movers

The futures were modestly higher prior to the release of economic data, and after the awful housing starts number, the markets turned lower. Dow dropped 58 points, S&P 500 4 points, and Nasdaq fell about 9 points.

SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB), which tracks the homebuilders, was down 18 cents to $17.76 at time of writing.

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.

FedEx Corp. (FDX), the world's leading package delivery service and an ostensible bellwether of the U.S. economy, will dance its way onto the earnings stage this week. Also, with the holiday shopping season well underway, Best Buy Co. (BBY) and Discover Financial Services (DFS) are scheduled to offer up their most recent quarterly results.

Here's a closer look at what the analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are expecting from these three, plus a peek at the week's economic calendar.

U.S. housing starts hit a five-month high in September, Commerce Department data released Tuesday revealed. Housing starts rose 0.3% to 610,000 units in September. Reuters analysts estimated only a 580,000 unit rate.

New building permits dropped 5.6% to a 539,000 unit pace, after a 2.1% increase in August. Permits were pulled down by a 20.2% slump in multi-family units. Actually, permits for single family homes rose by 0.5%

Most of the S&P 500 companies have already reported earnings results for the most recent quarter. But scheduled to release their results this week are Medtronic (MDT) and Novell (NOVL), which analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect to post earnings per share (EPS) about same as last year, as well as JDS Uniphase (JDSU), Patterson Companies (PDCO) and Tiffany & Co. (TIF), for which analysts foresee year-over-year earnings growth. Of these, the expectations are highest for Tiffany.

During the three months that ended in July, Tiffany launched an iPhone app and increased its quarterly dividend. Analysts expect the New York-based specialty retailer to report that earnings per share came to 53 cents, a 26.4% increase from a year earlier. Second-quarter revenue is expected to have grown 12.8% to $690.8 million. So far, analysts predict full-year earnings of $2.61 per share (+22.9%) on $3.0 billion (+11.8%) in revenue. Earnings results topped consensus estimates in four of the past five quarters, by 11 cents per share in the first quarter.

The red coats are coming! This time they are from continental Europe. Today's drop was tied to tighter financial reform and a ban on naked short selling in Germany. Oh well, an excuse is an excuse. PPI did not even matter because of the price drop in oil of late, and we did see housing starts were up, but building permits were down.

Here were today's closing bell levels:

S&P 500 1,120.80 -16.14 (-1.42%)
Dow 10,510.95 -114.88 (-1.08%)
Nasdaq 2,317.26 -36.97 (-1.57%)

After a harsh winter, new home construction is on the rise. These numbers are particularly encouraging: New home construction rose 20% in March over a year ago. Permits were up 34% over a year ago.

The Commerce Department reported that housing starts rose to an annual rate of 626,000 last month, up from February's revised 616,000. There is a push on to complete some of these houses before the first-time home buyer credit expires in June.

The Commerce Department reported that housing starts fell 5.9% in February to 575,000. Building permits also fell in February. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg news had forecast starts to fall to between 510,000 to 610,000.

Much of the weakness can be blamed on the weather. You don't start new construction in the midst of snowstorms and blizzards. Also, with a backlog of unsold existing homes, it becomes more difficult start new constructions. Builders remain cautious of moving forward too rapidly.

Here is a breakdown of the stats:

The numbers are looking good for January: both US home construction and industrial production rose.

Here are the stats:

• The Commerce Department reported that housing starts climbed 2.8% to a seasonally adjusted 591,000 annual rate.
• Housing starts and apartment construction were both up in January.
• Apartment construction rose 9.2% to 107,000

The Commerce Department reported this morning that U.S. housing starts fell 4% in December, bringing the seasonally adjusted annual rate to 557,000. For all of 2009, roughly 554,000 homes were started, which is 39% lower than the total from a year earlier. Furthermore, this reading is the lowest since the end of World War II.

Starts of single-family homes fell 29% to a record low of 444,000 in 2009. The good news? This reading was a good deal better than the 540,000 rate expected by analysts and November's starts were revised higher.

The U.S. housing market continued to show weakness in the latest reading. Here are the Commerce Department's latest numbers:

• Housing starts dropped 10.5% to 529,000 units. The expected number was 600,000.
• Groundbreaking for single family homes fell 6.8% last month to an annual rate of 476,000 units.
• Starts for multifamily homes fell sharply to a 53,000 annual pace, a drop of 34.6%.
• Compared to October last year, housing starts fell 30.7%.

This is good news! The Commerce Department reported that housing starts soared 17% in May. Housing starts increased to 532,000 from 454,000 the prior month. Projections were for an increase to only 485,000.

Here are the supporting numbers:

• Permits rose to 518,000, up from 498,000. Forecasts were for 508,000.
• Single family homes rose 7.5% to 401,000, the third straight monthly gain.

On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve's FOMC holds two-day meeting on interest rates and will announce its decision on Wednesday. The Fed's Ben Bernanke will still be out and about this week, discussing the failure of Lehman Brothers later today, and ending up the week speaking at the Independent Community Bankers of America National Convention and Techworld.

Manufacturing will be in focus this week, starting with industrial production numbers for February and the Empire State Manufacturing Survey Diffusion Index for March scheduled to be released Monday morning. Tuesday morning will bring us the Producer Price Index for February, and Thursday morning comes the Philadelphia Fed Outlook Survey -- Diffusion Index Manufacturing for March.

Among all the negative economic data that came out last week was a positive surprise: retail sales were higher in January. A fluke or a glimmer at the end of the tunnel? That may depend on whether we see any positive surprises arising from items on this week's economic calendar:

• Consumer Analyst Group of New York Conference: Monday through Friday
• NY Empire Manufacturing Index (Feb. 2009): Tuesday, 8:30 AM
• NAHB Housing Market Index (Feb. 2009): Tuesday, 1:00 PM
• Fed's Bullard speaks before National Association of Business Economists: Tuesday, 1:00 PM
• Housing starts (Jan. 2009): Wednesday, 8:30 AM
• Fed's Pianalto speaks before Commercial Developers Power Breakfast: Wednesday, 9:00 AM
• Industrial production (Jan. 2009): Wednesday, 9:15 AM
• Fed's Bernanke speaks before National Press Club Luncheon: Wednesday, 12:30 PM