Another week, another tech show, but this is one is all about Apple.

Macworld in San Francisco will feature product launches, demonstrations, and conference sessions, as well as Apple C.E.O. Steve Jobs' always highly anticipated keynote address on Tuesday. Jobs has a history of using the speech as an opportunity to unveil plans for the coming year, and is expected to announce the company's entry into an online movie rental business.

The Detroit Auto Show is also this week. The annual convention is a major event for the auto industry, and automakers typically show off their newest concepts and car models of the future. The theme this year is expected to be "green," as the industry demonstrates its plans and progress toward better fuel economy and alternative power sources.

While techies and car nuts will have their attention elsewhere, investors will be focused on fourth-quarter results this week from several major Wall Street banks.

Keenly awaited will be the results for Citigroup on Tuesday and Merrill Lynch on Thursday. Both banks took huge write-downs on investments tied to subprime mortgages in their third quarters and are expected to take billions more.

CNBC has said that Citi's write-down could be as much as a stunning $24 billion, and the New York Times has reported that Merrill will write down $15 billion. Both banks will report losses for the quarter as a result.

Washington Mutual is expected to report a loss of $1.20 per share when it reports results on Thursday. J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo are forecast to report small gains on Wednesday, results that will look stellar compared with their competitors. 

In addition to any 2008 forecasts issued by the banks, there will be plenty of economic indicators out this week to give investors a sense of where we're heading so far this year.

Official retail sales figures for December will be out Tuesday, and after abysmal numbers provided by retailers last week, those numbers are expected to rise by a paltry 0.1 percent for the month.

The Producer Price Index also comes out on Monday, and price inflation is thought to have slowed in December to 0.2 percent after a 3.2 percent gain in November. The Consumer Price Index is seen as also growing at a 0.2 percent rate, slower than the 0.8 percent growth experienced in November.

The housing market will get some fresh numbers on Thursday, when housing start and building permit figures are released for December. Both are seen as dropping just slightly from November numbers, with housing starts at 1.15 million and permits at 1.14 million for the month—no surprise given the discouraging results issued by KB Home last week.