The third quarter earnings season is over, and we will actually start to see a handful of fourth quarter reports this week, those with November fiscal ends. Next week only 32 firms will report, but 12 of those will be S&P 500 firms. We define any fiscal period ending in November, December and January to be the fourth quarter.

While there are a not a lot of reports, the reports we get will provide some early clues on the fourth quarter. The firms reporting this week include

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) and

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). That is an interesting cross-section of the market that may provide clues to the overall direction of the economy.

While things will be quite on the earnings side, the same is not true of the economic data front, although all the action will be jammed into two days. Housing will take center stage as we get both Existing and New Home Sales. We also get data on Personal Income and Spending, Durable Goods Orders and Consumer Sentiment. Additionally, we get the final look at GDP growth in the third quarter.

Historically the best indicators of firms which are likely to report positive surprises are a recent history of positive surprises and rising estimates going into the report. The Zacks Rank is also a good indicator of potential surprises.

However, given the small number of firms reporting, we skip this section this week.