Coming Week: Heavy Earnings Trump Data

A loaded calendar for economic data next week will likely play second fiddle to an even heavier load of corporate earnings.

Roughly a third of the S&P 500 reported results last week, and another third is scheduled for the week ahead, including Dow Jones Industrial Average components Verizon (VZ Quote), ExxonMobil (XOM Quote) and Procter & Gamble (PG Quote).

The week is laden with economic data and news. Wednesday is the heaviest day, with an advance, or first, reading of gross domestic product in the morning and then a statement from the Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee on interest rates in the afternoon. On Friday, the Institute of Supply Management unveils its April survey of purchasing managers.

"We're going to have an action-packed week for economic data that is perhaps overshadowed by the earnings season," says Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Jefferies.

By midday Friday, 177 S&P 500 components had reported earnings, with another 146 expected to post results by the end of next week, says Ashwani Kaul, director of research at Thomson Reuters. Thus far, the results have been encouraging: 62% of companies that had reported through the middle of Friday had beat analyst expectations, outpacing the 53% average over the past four or five quarters, he says.

"It's probably the first time in several quarters that we've seen some stabilization with earnings," Kaul says.

Technology stocks have performed well, and even the long-battered financial sector has held its own. Kaul said 16 of the 31 financials that have reported so far have beat expectations, including heavyweights like Bank of America (BAC Quote), Wells Fargo (WFC Quote) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM Quote).