Eli Lilly announced it needed to work a few more years on its Alzheimer’s drug, causing its stock to drop. Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson got a needed nod of approval for its underappreciated pharmaceutical division.

The generic drug industry is dancing on the edge of a generic cliff. Plus, as the U.S. gets closer to going over the fiscal cliff, Japan reported falling into a recession, China's exports fell and Germany cut growth forecasts.

Toll Brothers reports earnings (important for housing numbers), President Obama will be talking about the fiscal cliff and job numbers come in on Friday — bad numbers here may be a result of Sandy.

Black Friday often fools amateur investors because of the idea of shoppers lining up and packing stores to buy products. However, that doesn’t necessarily translate into a strong retail industry.

While investors are in a tryptophan-induced coma on the day after Thanksgiving, companies will be releasing information they’re legally obligated to report in the hopes that the bad news will get buried and overlooked.

The Obama administration and the Federal Reserve have sunk enough money into the economy to keep the Titanic afloat, which can cause inflation — the ultimate disruption.

After the abnormally truncated week from Hurricane Sandy last week, the markets aren’t ready to go back to normal just yet since the election is upon us. Plus, the health care sector took a beating last week.

Hurricane Sandy is going to be the spotlight this week even for investors, which will mean lighter-than-usual trading and likely overreactions to any data that comes out. In addition, with the presidential election so close, the markets will be in a state of suspended animation.

Last week was brutal with poor earnings from a number of big companies, including Google and McDonald's. But this week is going to be the week of Apple, with the iPad mini release on Tuesday and an earnings report on Thursday.

Last week was the worst week in four months for the market as a closer look at the first earnings reports of the season showed disappointing news lurking under initially positive-looking data. Earnings will continue to hold sway this week as 40% of the Dow companies report.