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After a horrible first three trading days of the year, investors will look to this week to see if stocks can regain any footing. The economic data from last week was the primary cause of the tremendous selloff to start the year. The worries in the past few days have grown immensely about the possibility that the economy is either already in recession or about to go into a recession.

Both economic data and earnings reports take on an increased amount of importance because of the recession worries. Investors will want to analyze every piece of data very closely to see which way this market may turn due to the economic fears.

Economic Data to watch:

January 8th

• Pending Home Sales at 10am- Housing has been in terrible shape for months, but will it accelerate to the downside or keep on its current path?

January 10th

• Initial jobless claims at 8:30 am- Because of last week's very disappointing employment number, this report takes on increased importance. Investors know that the economy can't hold up if the job market collapses.

Notable earnings reports this week

January 8th

• Constellation Brands Inc. (NYSE:STZ) This maker of alcoholic beverages is set to report before the opening bell Tuesday. The last couple of quarters they have been able to beat expectations quite handily.
• KB Home (NYSE:KBH) KBH is expected to lose $1.08 per share when it reports Tuesday morning. Can things get any worse for this company? We'll find out soon, and the answer will likely be yes.
• Supervalu (NYSE:SVU) SVU is expected to report 63 cents. The last couple months haven't been good at all for this stock, so investors probably don't have too high of expectations for this report.
• Family Dollar Stores (NYSE:FDO) Rewind back 6 months and FDO was hitting 52 week highs and things seemed to be buzzing right along. Just 6 months later the stock is down more than 50% from that level as the recession fear grow.

January 9th

• Alcoa (NYSE:AA) This company will once again start out the Dow 30 companies this earnings season. It is expected to bring in 39 cents per share.
• Ruby Tuesday's (NYSE:RT) Like most restaurants in the past year or so, RT has done very poorly. Analysts are predicting a loss of 30 cents per share from this company as their food costs have just soared through the roof.
• The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) If you want a picture of exactly what has been working in this market, just look at Mosaic. Mosaic has been absolutely on fire as the agriculture boom just continues. The stock gained more than 300% last year and has withheld the selloffs quite well so far this year as well.

The market is just looking for a reason to trade higher at this point as there are certainly some people who think that last weeks selloff has created some opportunities, but with continuing bad news like last week this week would probably be no different. It all comes down to the economic data and the earnings reports. Stay tuned!