Wall Street week ahead

LESTER HOLT, anchor: Back here on the ground, we could be in for another rough ride in the financial markets this week as investors keep an eye on what's going on overseas and here at home. Last week, of course, was a wild weed -- week of swings. For the first time ever, the Dow moved more than 400 points up or down four days in a row. So what should we know about the week ahead? CNBC 's Michelle Caruso-Cabrera joins us from CNBC global headquarters. Michelle , what are the Monday overseas market openings telling us so far?

MICHELLE CARUSO-CABRERA reporting: Well, Lester , 45 minutes ago New Zealand opened slightly higher. Looks like Australia is going to open higher in about 15 minutes. Gold is lower. And US futures are higher. Right now it suggests that at least for now the markets are calmer than they were last week. But still, there are a lot of key events coming up next week which could roil the markets.

HOLT: And so many concerns about Europe. And I understand European Union officials are going to get together early in the week. What will that tell us, and what might that -- how might that affect the markets?

CARUSO-CABRERA: Well, Angela Merkel , the leader of Germany , is meeting with the leader of France , Nicolas Sarkozy , in Paris . They're expected to make a big announcement about the future finances of the European Union . The state of the European Union right now, its situation is very grave. There's discussions about whether or not they should kick out Greece , the weakest member of the euro. That would be akin to us talking about kicking out one of the states in the US and telling them they couldn't use the dollar anymore. What we expect to hear on Tuesday is something from Germany , the strongest country in Europe , about whether or not they're willing to do anything to help out their weaker members and strengthen the entire union. The markets really want to see something along those lines. Lester :