On Tap Today: Fed to Meet; Wal-Mart, Home Depot to Report

Wall Street is bracing for an eventful day on Tuesday as the

Federal Reserve will hold a policy meeting and decide whether to lower interest rates again. Many market watchers expect the Fed to drop rates by an additional 50 basis points, bringing the

fed funds target rate to 4%. Lately, though, some experts have been scaling back their expectations to a 25-basis-point cut.

TheStreet.com's

David Gaffen

took a look at the possible cut and what might happen as a result of the Fed's actions.

On the earnings front,

Wal-Mart

(WMT) - Get Report

,

Home Depot

(HD) - Get Report

,

J.C. Penney

(JCP) - Get Report

and

Applied Materials

(AMAT) - Get Report

will release their numbers.

Check out the

complete list of today's earnings announcements.

Economic Data

(

Forecasts are from

Reuters

. Times are Eastern. For a longer-term economic calendar and more, see

TheStreet.com's

Economic Databank.

)

9 a.m.: Federal Open Market Committee. Source: Federal Reserve.
9 a.m.: BTM-UBSW Weekly Store Sales Index for the week ended May 12. Source: Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and UBS Warburg. Forecast: n.a. Previous: -0.5%.
9 a.m.: Redbook Retail Average for the month through May 12, vs. April. Source: LJR Redbook. Forecast: n.a. Previous: +0.8%.

IPO Lockups Expiring

(TheStreet.com's

Michael Falbo, who writes a column for

TSC's

ipoPros.com subsidiary, keeps a close eye on lockup expirations every week. For more on lockup expirations and why they matter, check out Ben Holmes' primer on the subject. The full lockup expiration list is published separately. For information on IPO pricings, filings and aftermarket activity, plus a calendar of upcoming IPOs, check out

TheStreet.com's

IPO data section.

)