Megacaps, Autos and an Index Crunch: This Week's Events

The biggest earnings week of the autumn opens today. MSFT reports Wednesday evening, followed by AMZN on Thursday. Both are among the five largest companies by market cap.

INTC also holds its earnings call Thursday. The chip giant remains under pressure and any guidance update will be closely watched.

Tuesday brings KO and SPGI before the open. CMG and EBAY report Wednesday after the close. BMY opens Wednesday's session with results at 8am.

In Europe, MBG reports Tuesday. Dutch car registration data, a leading indicator for Mercedes revenue with a strong fit, is running 6% below last year through all three months of the quarter. VOW3 and RNO follow on Wednesday. Austrian registration data, which leads Volkswagen revenue by 18 days, is also running 6% below last year. Renault faces a mixed picture: Austrian data points up 6%, while Dutch data runs 19% lower.

No IPOs are scheduled in the next seven days in the ORTEX database.

On the index front, the Russell 2000 December review ranks Thursday. Five names sit within 1.3% of the entry line. Old National Bancorp trades exactly on both the Russell 2000 exit and Russell 1000 entry lines, at 55% probability each. A single closing print resolves both. Tata Motors' agreed bid for Iveco Group may also trigger a STOXX Europe 600 deletion announcement as early as Thursday, forcing an estimated $225m of tracker selling.