Stocks face wild ride with banks and CPI

By Jennifer Ablan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The rocky ride for the stock market may intensify this week if earnings reports from JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N: Quote, Profile, Research), Merrill Lynch (MER.N: Quote, Profile, Research), Citigroup (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and other large banks and financial services companies rattle investors already concerned about a U.S.-led economic slowdown.

Wall Street also will contend with reams of economic data, with two inflation indicators -- the Producer Price Index and the Consumer Price Index -- set for release. The calendar includes U.S. housing starts, industrial output and capacity utilization, and the Fed's Beige Book.

Strains in the credit markets have not gone away, as billions of dollars of losses tied to U.S. subprime mortgage investments continue to build on bank balance sheets around the world. But investors are on the lookout for signs that first-quarter losses could be less than expected, helping to affirm the beginning of the bottoming phase in credit markets.

"What markets are going to look at is: 'Have the financial losses begun to decline?' and 'Is the guidance going to (show) that we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel?'" said John Praveen, chief investment strategist at Prudential International Investments Advisers LLC in Newark, New Jersey.

"If they are worse than the negative sentiment or expectations, then financial stocks probably are going to get knocked down again," added Keith Wirtz, president and chief investment officer of Fifth Third Asset Management, which manages $22 billion.

Some may not get that one-two punch, however.

Though profit per share may fall by nearly half at JPMorgan, which had an estimated $26.4 billion of leveraged loan exposure, the bank has steered clear of other credit minefields.

"JPMorgan has been in the news a lot and they've done better than average for commercial banks, but we want to see what they say about the future," Wirtz said.