The Fool Looks Ahead

There's never a dull week on Wall Street. Let's go over some of the news that will shape the week to come.

Monday
The trading week begins with VMware (NYS: VMW) broadcasting its latest quarterly results. The virtualization software leader is expected to post a profit of $0.66 a share, well ahead of the $0.55 it rang up a year earlier.

Tuesday
United Parcel Service (NYS: UPS) has historically been a good proxy for the economy. If the company is seeing a healthy uptick in merchandise shipments, it's a solid sign that consumers are feeling comfortable enough to part with more of their money.

Tuesday's report, according to analysts, will find the speedy parcel delivery specialist growing its net income by nearly 10%.

Wednesday
Have you seen the shoe lines at Crocs (NAS: CROX) lately? Yes, the company still makes its resin shoes in funky colors, but it also has other lines that are pretty darn fashionable.

Really.

We'll get a closer look at the volatile footwear maker when it reports on Wednesday.

Thursday
Facebook (NAS: FB) is trading well below its $38 IPO, but there's no denying that the company's leading social-networking website is the stickiest site in cyberspace to its more than 900 million active users.

Fans and skeptics alike will tune in on Thursday to see how Mark Zuckerberg fares in his first quarterly report since the company went public.

Friday
The final trading day of the week is usually quiet, but that's not the case in earnings season.

A big name to watch is Merck (NYS: MRK) . The market's generally skeptical of the major pharmaceutical companies, especially as many big drugs have expiring patents. This opens up the market for generics, and that's good for consumers -- but not so good for the drugmakers.

Check that calendar
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The article The Fool Looks Ahead originally appeared on Fool.com.

The Motley Fool owns shares of Facebook.Motley Fool newsletter serviceshave recommended buying shares of VMware. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe thatconsidering a diverse range of insightsmakes us better investors. Try any of our Foolish newsletter servicesfree for 30 days.Longtime Fool contributorRick Munarrizcalls them as he sees them. He does not own shares in any of the stocks in this story and is also part of theRule Breakersnewsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.

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