Microsoft: Tomorrow's Headliners

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Microsoft (MSFT Quote) is on tap to report its quarterly results early Friday, as a busy earnings week ends on a relatively quiet note.

The software giant and component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average should report earnings of 32 cents a share on revenue of $12.37 billion, according to a poll of analysts by Thomson Reuters. Both figures are a steep decline from the year-ago quarter, when Microsoft posted a profit of 48 cents a share on revenue of $15.06 billion.

Microsoft's earnings release comes one day after it began selling its new Windows 7 software, which it has dubbed the best PC operating system ever.

Several other companies will also be out with quarterly results before the start of trading Friday, including Honeywell (HON Quote), Schlumberger (SLB Quote), Whirlpool (WHR Quote), Exelon (EXC Quote) and Ingersoll-Rand (IR Quote).

Existing home sales, the lone economic report of the day, is scheduled for release at 10 a.m. EDT. Economists polled by Reuters expect the National Association of Realtors to say existing home sales rose to 5.35 million units in September from 5.1 million in August.

Before that, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will deliver a speech on financial regulation and supervision after the financial crisis during a convention held by the Boston Federal Reserve.

-- Written by Robert Holmes in New York.

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