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A relatively busy week continues on Thursday, as a number of S&P 500 corporates report earnings and data releases hit the street.

Already, the Federal Open Markets Committee has announced it sees unemployment declining further in 2012, but that the economy would grow slower than earlier forecast. 

Here’s what you need to know.

• Singapore will kick off the day with industrial production when the clock strikes midnight. Economists polled by Bloomberg see a 6.40% year-on-year gain for December, reversing a 9.60% decline in November.
• Germany and France will start a series of economic releases in Europe at 2:00 a.m. and 2:45 a.m. EST, respectively. Expectations are for consumer confidence in both countries to remain flat.  
• Attention then shifts to Sweden and Denmark. Forecasts are for both countries to report an increasing unemployment rate. Economists polled by Bloomberg see the Swedish and Danish jobless rates hitting 7.00% and 6.70%, respectively. 
• At 4:00 a.m. EST Italy will report consumer confidence, with economists polled by Bloomberg seeing the headline figure increasing to 92.0 from 91.6. Economists polled by ForexTV have a slightly different opinion, and see the index declining to 89.5.
• U.K. CBI retail sales are scheduled for 6:00 a.m. EST, with forecasts for the index to contract to -6 from 9. The CBI survey measures sales representing roughly 40% of the total U.K. retail industry.
• North American announcements start at 8:30 a.m. EST with Chicago Federal Reserve activity, durable goods orders and initial claims. Economists predict durable goods excluding transport will increase 0.9%, against a 0.3% gain in November. Initial claims are seen losing momentum and jumping to 370,000, up 18,000 from last week’s reading.
• Mexican retail sales are set for release at 9:00 a.m. EST. Forecasts put the November reading at 5.30% growth, accelerating from 3.00%.
• Later in the day, the Census will announce new home sales in the U.S., before the Kansas City Federal Reserve announces activity in the region at 11:00 a.m. EST. Home sales are seen increasing by 6,000 units to 321,000 in December.

U.S. corporates reporting quarterly results on Thursday include AT&T, Caterpillar, Lockheed Martin and Starbucks. Below, a roundup of tomorrow’s big announcers.

Time Warner Cable (TWC): $1.21
Airgas (ARG): $0.97
Mead Johnson Nutrition (MJN): $0.51
Monster Worldwide (MWW): $0.12
Lockheed Martin (LMT): $1.94
Janus Capital Group (JNS): $0.15
Colgate-Palmolive (CL): $1.30
Consol Energy (CNX): $0.63
Raytheon (RTN): $1.34
Under Armour (UA): $0.61
Caterpillar (CAT): $1.73
Sherwin-Williams (SHW): $0.83
AT&T (T): $0.43
VeriSign (VRSN): $0.41
KLA-Tencor (KLAC): $0.66
Amgen (AMGN): $1.23
Juniper Networks (JNPR): $0.28
Starbucks (SBUX): $0.48
3M (MMM): $1.31
JetBlue Airways (JBLU): $0.03
Celgene (CELG): $1.05
United Continental Holdings (UAL): $0.12
Motorola Mobility (MMI): $0.22
Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY): $0.55
Amylin Pharmaceuticals (AMLN): -$0.97
JB Hunt Transport Services (JBHT): $0.58
DeVry (DV): $1.01

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See Also:

• Here Are The Key Market Moving Events For Tuesday, January 24
• Morgan Stanley Is Still Massively Exposed To European Sovereigns
• Here Are The Key Market Moving Events For Friday, January 20

In its New Year report the CBI has called on UK businesses to increase their export activity to help the UK re-balance its economy.

The CBI believes that this could boost the UK’s economy by £20 billion over the next eight years.

The organisation is also calling on the private sector to invest £140 billion in the country’s infrastructure to help offset public sector cuts and to stabilise government debt.

The Government has already announced a number of projects in its National Infrastructure Plan including major improvements to the UK’s transport and broadband networks.

These re-balancing measures would help the UK reduce its dependence on debt-driven household and government spending, the CBI’s report suggests.

John Cridland, the CBI Director-General warned: “If we fail, the UK’s debts will continue to grow and our trend growth-rate will remain low. Only through rebalancing can we return growth to long-term sustainable levels.”

Mr Cridland warned that “2012 is going to be a hard road,” a view that is shared by UK businesses according to recent surveys.

According to new research by accountancy firm Deloitte, most companies are pessimistic about the coming year with more than 50 per cent of finance directors expected the UK to fall back into recession.

The monthly Lloyds Bank business barometer also suggests a fall in confidence among smaller companies in December, with around three quarters believing that another recession is likely.

The Financial Times today reported a similar fall in confidence among economists, with the results of a new poll suggesting that the UK economy could deteriorate to levels not seen since 2009, in the face of the continuing debt crisis in the eurozone.

However, only a small minority of the economists surveyed by the Financial Times believed that the Government should back-track on its austerity plan.

Employees who have been with a company for less than two years will no longer be eligible for a refund of the money they have paid into a defined-contribution pension scheme, under proposed reforms.

The change, which is designed to stop employees leaving a firm without a pension, has been welcomed by the National Association of Pension Funds.

The government is working to make it easier for people with a number of small pension pots to consolidate them into one worthwhile pension.

This will be particularly important when the auto-enrolment scheme starts to be introduced in October 2012.

The scheme will make it compulsory for private-sector employers to auto-enrol their employees into a pension fund and make contributions on their behalf.

It will be phased in, starting with firms with over 120,000 employees, and working down in order of size until September 2016 when all firms will be included.

The Government expects that a highly mobile jobs market and the introduction of automatic enrolment will lead to around 4.7 million additional small pension pots in its pensions system by 2050.

Pensions Minister Steve Webb said: “I am concerned that people are at risk of losing their small pension pots as they move from job to job.

“I do not want to see people who are doing the right thing by saving, ending up with very little for their retirement because the system is too complicated.

“I want to make it as easy as possible for people to grow big fat pension pots,” he said.

In related news, a survey by the CBI found that only 1 per cent of its members plan to reduce employee pension provision as a result of the introduction of auto-enrolment, while 61 per cent will enrol defined-contribution scheme members on their existing terms.

The survey also found that 80 per cent of employers have considered how they will comply with auto-enrolment regulations.

CBI chief policy director Katja Hall said: “Our survey shows a heartening level of readiness for next year’s pension reforms among firms facing the change, with less prepared firms typically those who will not be enrolling staff for several years to come.”

The Chancellor George Osborne is expected to announce a scheme to help first-time buyers in his autumn statement on November 29, according to a report in The Telegraph.

The statement, which will set out plans to encourage growth in the UK’s economy, could include a mortgage indemnity guarantee scheme, which would see the government underwriting low-deposit mortgages for first-time buyers.

The scheme was suggested by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) as part of its recommendations on how to unfreeze the housing market.

Since the credit crunch, it has been much more difficult for first time buyers to afford a mortgage because lenders are asking for prohibitively high deposits.

The government’s plan to underwrite mortgages would reduce the risk to lenders if borrowers failed to make repayments, allowing them to offer mortgages to people who can only afford a small deposit.

The Treasury said that news that such a scheme could form part of the autumn statement was “pure speculation”, and pointed out that the scheme would put taxpayer’s money at risk.

In related news, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) is proposing an extension to a scheme that is already helping first time buyers.

First-time buyers are currently exempt from paying stamp duty on sales of up to £250,000, but this exemption is due to end in March next year.

The CML wants the scheme to be extended and has warned that ending the exemption could cause further damage to an already fragile housing market.

Paul Smee, the CML’s director general, said: “The CML believes it would be a mistake to pull the plug on the concession – at least until the housing market returns to a firmer footing.

“First-time buyers need to get the message that the Government supports them as they take their first steps into a housing market where confidence needs to be restored.”

The CBI is calling for a radical rethink in the way house purchases are funded including allowing buyers to dip into their pension pot for the deposit on their first home.

The number of first-time buyers fell from a high of 167,400 in 2001 to 36,200 in 2011 with unaffordable deposits and financial insecurity making it impossible for many people to take their first step onto the property ladder.

The CBI’s ‘Unfreezing the Housing Market’ report also calls for new mortgages to be introduced, tailored to allow homeowners in negative equity to move house.

The report claims that although five million people are “languishing on waiting lists” property sales have plummeted since the recession.

It sets out a number of proposals to boost the housing market including introducing a “Mortgage Indemnity Guarantee” insurance scheme.

This insurance fund would protect lenders from defaults on mortgage payments, giving them the confidence to offer low-deposit mortgages to first-time buyers.

The CBI also wants planning rules to be relaxed to help stimulate the housing market.

It wants commercial premises to be able to be converted to houses without the need for planning permission and is also calling for a review of Stamp Duty in order to make it more progressive.

John Cridland, CBI Director-General, said: “Housing makes a significant direct contribution to economic output and job creation, and also has a big impact on business and consumer confidence and spending.”

There was some good news for first-time buyers today with recent research showing that the number of 90 per cent mortgages on the market has increased significantly in the last two years.

New figures from Moneyfacts show that 84 mortgages at 90 per cent loan-to-value are available at present, while some building societies, including Skipton, Melton Mowbray and Cambridge are offering 95 per cent mortgages.