The business week ahead

Heads up: It will be an unusually slow week in terms of major economic reports. But the two scheduled for release are biggies: The Conference Board report on September's leading economic indicators on Monday, and the National Association of Realtors figures for existing home sales for September on Friday.

Tuesday: State and regional jobless figures for September are released by the Washington state Department of Employment Security.

Wednesday: Boeing will announce third-quarter earnings, which will be reduced several hundred million dollars by the impact from the Machinists strike. In a 7:30 a.m. conference call — webcast at www.boeing.com, Investors Relations section — Chief Executive Jim McNerney is expected to address prospects for resolving the strike, formally announce a further delay to the 787 program and field questions about the separate labor talks coming to a head soon with the union representing engineers and technical staff. ... Amazon.com announces third-quarter financial results. A 2 p.m. conference call will be webcast at www.amazon.com/ir.

Thursday: September and third-quarter home- foreclosure statistics will be released by Realty Trac, a national foreclosure-information provider.