Tomorrow's Headliners: Dell, Target

Dell's (DELL Quote) latest quarterly earnings report and Target's (TGT Quote) fiery shareholder meeting will be the top headlines of Thursday's session.

Dell will report first-quarter results after the end of trading Thursday, with analysts expecting a profit of 23 cents a share on revenue of $12.68 billion, according to a poll conducted by Thomson Reuters. Given the weakness in the PC market, analysts will be looking for signs that the sector has hit bottom.

Marvell Technology (MRVL Quote) will report alongside Dell after Thursday's closing bell. Before that, Costco Wholesale (COST Quote) and HJ Heinz (HNZ Quote), among others, will release their quarterly reports in the morning.

Away from earnings reports, investors should be ready for fireworks from Target. The retailer is set to host its annual shareholder meeting, where the long-running battle with shareholder Bill Ackman of Pershing Square for five seats on the board will come to a head. On Tuesday, Ackman pledged to retain his stake in Target for at least five years if he's elected to the company's board.

Several other companies will be holding their own stockholder gatherings, although they're not expected to be as interesting as Target's. Home Depot (HD Quote), Amazon.com (AMZN Quote) and Juniper Networks (JNPR Quote) will host their own shareholder meetings Thursday.

The economic calendar is busier than it has been this week, with reports on durable goods orders and new home sales, as well as the weekly report on initial jobless claims and crude inventories, scheduled for release. Durable goods orders are expected to have increased 0.5% last month after a 0.8% drop in March, while new home sales are expected to rise to 363,000 from 356,000 in March.