THE US Federal Reserve will take centre stage on Wednesday when it announces its latest interest rate decision.
Commentators are predicting that a rate cut of 0.25 per cent is on the cards.
Monday
Results: Electrolux, Schering, Verizon, Whitbread.
Meetings: Arena Leisure agm.
Indicators: German HICP (Mar).
Other: William Fry will host a briefing on the theme of "celebrating innovation" to mark World Intellectual Property Day; European Commission spring economic forecasts for 2008 and 2009 for the euro area; Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to launch OECD Review of the Irish Public Service (Dublin Castle); financial regulator to publish 2007 annual report; trading updates from Asos and Just Retirement.
Tuesday
Public holiday in Japan.
Results: BP, CB Richard Ellis, Connacht Gold, Daimler, Deutsche Bank, Icon, K-Swiss, Trinity Biotech.
Meetings: FBD and HBOS agms.
Indicators: US Conference Board consumer confidence (Apr), Case-Schiller house prices (Feb) and weekly retail sales (Apr 26th); UK consumer credit (Mar) and CBI monthly distributive trades survey (Apr); German retail sales (Apr); French consumer confidence (Apr).
Other: Launch of the PwC/Amárach Research Asia property survey (College of Physicians, Dublin 2).
Wednesday
Results: Alacatel-Lucent, Coillte, Colgate-Palmolive, Garmin, Ingersoll-Rand, Iona Technologies, Kraft Foods, Mitsubishi, Proctor Gamble, Sanofi-Aventis, Siemens, Starbucks, Symantec.
Meetings: British American Tobacco agm.
Indicators: EU HICP (Apr), unemployment (Mar), and business and consumer confidence indices (Apr); Irish Central Bank monthly figures (Mar).
Other: ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet to give a keynote speech at the Karlspreis Europa Forum (Aachen, Germany).
Thursday
Public holiday in Germany, France and Italy.
Results: Aon, Burger King, Cardinal Health, Expedia, ExxonMobil, Getty Images, Smith Nephew, Sun Microsystems.
Indicators: Irish NCB purchasing managers' survey (Apr).
Friday
Results: Chevron, Nortel Networks.
Meetings: Benfield and T Clarke agms.
Indicators: Irish exchequer returns (Apr).
