After the fourth straight week of higher stock prices, investors are flying a little high. Several major companies reported earnings during the week of April 30-May 4 and rumors began circulating of major takeovers. One such takeover includes Microsoft and makes them appear to have an “if you can’t beat them, join them” attitude. This perceived attitude follows Yahoo’s recent announcement to purchase Right Media, which coincidentally follows Google’s purchase of Doubleclick. It is rumored that Doubleclick was originally courted by Microsoft before agreeing to Google’s purchase offer. These Microsoft rumors along with other take over news, helped stocks to rise and end on a high note. While investors are enjoying this bounce in the stock market, several economic and earnings reports are due out this week as well as whether or not the Federal Reserve will adjust the interest rate. On May 9, the Federal Reserve will meet to decide whether to lower, raise, or leave the interest rate alone. The present interest rate has stood still since last summer, but some investors are hoping that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in order to encourage spending. While there is hope among investors, many experts believe the Federal Reserve will allow the interest rate to remain where it is.

The reports that came out last week did indicate that the economy is growing at a snail’s pace, but investors are still worried about soaring prices. The other economic reports due out this week will help investors and experts alike, paint a more complete picture of the economy and these reports will without a doubt influence the stock market. On Monday, May 7 at 3:00 pm the Federal Reserve is scheduled to release the March consumer credit report. It is predicted that this report will show consumer credit increased by approximately $2.1 billion dollars since February. Aside from the very busy week that the Federal Reserve obviously will be having, the Commerce department will be having an equally busy week. The Commerce department is expected to report on wholesale inventories, import/export prices, and business inventories. All three reports are predicted to have increases from the previous report, especially the import/export pricing report which is predicted to have a $1.6 billion increase.

Not to be left out of the action, the Labor Department is scheduled to release the Producer Price Index (PPI) on Friday, May 11. The PPI is an indicator of wholesale price inflation. The Labor Department will report on the PPI and the core PPI. The PPI is predicted to have a .7% increase in April while the core PPI, which will ignore the price for food as well as energy, is predicted to have a .2% increase.

While all of these economic reports will have a bearing on the stock market for the upcoming week, so will several major companies who are scheduled to give their earnings report. On Tuesday CVS/Caremark Rx Corporation, the Walt Disney Company and Cisco Systems, Incorporated are scheduled to release their earnings. It is believed that both Disney and Cisco will have promising news concerning their previous quarter’s profits. On Wednesday, Toyota Motor Company will take its turn reporting. It too is expected to have good news for their investors. The dawn of Thursday will see some of the nation’s largest retailers release their sales figures for April. Currently there are few predictions as to what these figures will be.

Basically, the long and short of the market prices is that investors need to hold on tight because while the stock market has seen some growth in the last few weeks, the upcoming economic and earnings reports could make some a little uneasy and therefore make the market falter some this week if not into the next few weeks.