Stock-market bulls face hurdles in the week ahead
A wave of earnings news and the Federal Reserve’s two-day meeting should dominate market talk in the coming week as investors sort through a batch of data that was delayed by the government shutdown.

About a quarter of the S&P 500 companies report earnings, with Apple Monday, Facebook and General Motors on Wednesday, and Exxon Mobil Thursday. Visa releases its first earnings report as a member of the Dow on Wednesday.

The Fed is not expected to take any action at its meeting Tuesday and Wednesday, though it could tweak the language in its statement to acknowledge the economic uncertainty created by the 16-day government shutdown.

As for the delayed economic reports, retail sales for September will be issued Tuesday and producer and consumer inflation data are expected Tuesday and Wednesday. The October jobs report, originally scheduled for Friday, has been delayed for a week until Nov. 8 though there are private-sector jobs data from ADP and Challenger on Wednesday. http://www.cnbc.com/id/101145197