analyst forecasts

Home retailers Bed Bath & Beyond and Pier 1 Imports are scheduled to post quarterly earnings this week, along with Monsanto, the biotech, agriculture and chemical giant. Here's what analysts expect to see.

The quarter winds down this week with earnings reports from a handful of companies including Lennar, Family Dollar and Krispy Kreme. And on Friday, investors will zero in on the March unemployment report, which could have the potential to move the market.

Oracle, Discover and Tiffany are all expected to report year-over-year growth for their most recent quarters this week. Meanwhile, many will be looking for an updated snapshot of the housing market, with three sets of real-estate data coming out.

Mergers and acquisitions are becoming ever more popular, with activity up 24% in the first two months of this year -- after already growing 23% in 2010. Here's how your portfolio can benefit from this trend.

Federal economic data, as well as the Labor Department's Producer Price Index and Consumer Price Index, could dominate economic news this week. And while the earnings season is winding down, quarterly reports from Nike and Ross Stores are scheduled.

This week we turn the calendar page, and that change brings with it a raft of economic data. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will deliver his semiannual monetary policy testimony before Congress, while Wall Street waits on more earnings reports.

Many of America's best-known retailers, including Walmart, Home Depot and JCPenney, will be stepping into the earnings spotlight this week. Their reports come on the heels of disappointing January retail sales numbers from the Commerce Department.

It should be pretty quiet on the economic calendar this week, with only a few national reports due out. But iconic companies Walt Disney, Coca-Cola and Hasbro, among others, are scheduled to report quarterly results.

The all-important January employment reports come out this week. Also worth watching for are a host of earnings releases, led by economic bellwhether UPS. The package deliverer is expected to post strong results.

With corporate earnings season in full swing -- watch for McDonalds, along with Catepillar, Amazon and other -- and with the Fed meeting on interest rates, the GDP estimate and housing numbers coming out -- the week ahead is expected to be quite busy.