Stock Market, Feb. 3: What's on Tap

NEW YORK (TheStreet -- The market is already zeroing in on the nonfarm payroll figure that's due on Friday, but the data from initial claims and continuing claims at 8:30 a.m. ET on Thursday will give a good idea of what to expect.

Wednesday's ADP report isn't considered to be very reliable and it only showed that the jobs being added were in the low-paying service sector.

And while the market has managed to look past the turmoil in Egypt so far this week, further deterioration in the situation or the spread of protests to other countries in North Africa and the Middle East may force Wall Street to pay attention.

Look for some headlines when Ben Bernanke speaks at the National Press Club in Washington. This comes on the heels of the New York Federal Reserve's disclosure that the Fed is the largest holder of Treasuries, making China the second largest holder of our debt. Bernanke has now painted himself into a corner because interest rates will have to go up at some point and this investment is going to drop in value. Presumably he'll talk about how the threat of deflation has diminished and inflation is no worry ... right.

Speaking of inflation, several food-related companies are set to deliver their results on Thursday, namely Hain Celestial Group(HAIN), Kellogg(K) and Unilever(UL).

Hain Celestial has seen improving trends of customers beginning to trade up to higher priced items but natural and organic food company faces increasing competition from Whole Foods Markets(WFMI) as it starts to promote its private label brands.

At Kellogg, pricing is down because of promotions, so investors will be focused on gross margins. Expect the company to begin talking about when they plan on passing higher prices to customers.

Meanwhile Unilever buys 6% of the world's tomatoes and 12% of its tea. Like all food companies, it will have to decide if it will protect its margins or risk market share by raising prices.

On the financial side, MasterCard(MA) delivers its numbers before the market opens and they should be pretty good.

Other card companies like American Express(AXP) and Capital One (COP)have already said that spending is back up. Its closest rival Visa(V) topped Wall Street's profit view with its earnings already this week. The fee issue is still an overhang, so the company could report a solid quarter but not see that reflected in the stock price. Visa and MasterCard have already spent a combined $8 million fighting a fee cap.

Ratings agency Moody's(MCO) reports its quarter before the opening bell. The company raised its forecast in January citing heavy U.S. debt issuance and investor demand for junk bonds, so the number should be good. Closing at $29.87 on Wednesday, the stock has made quite a comeback since bottoming out at $18.50 in June.

Blackstone Group(BX) is also set to report on Thursday. Credit Suisse just reinstated coverage of the private equity firm's stock with an outperform rating and a $20 target price.

Many traders have said that they don't believe in this stock rally because the financial stocks haven't led the way. Credit Suisse had very positive forward looking comments on improving capital markets for Blackstone, which is expected to report a profit of 30 cents a share for the December period. The shares are up more than 22% in the past 52 weeks, and hit a 52-week high of $16.69 on Tuesday.