Complete Preparation for Summer Earnings Season 2011

Is it really summer earnings season already? It seems like just yesterday we were navigating all the numbers and steering our portfolios into profitable waters. Yet, here we are! Alcoa AA has been batting lead-off in New York seemingly since Bernie Williams was in diapers, and that's not about to change this summer. The aluminum giant will report first on Monday, July 11, setting the tone for what promises to be an interesting two weeks. After we spend Tuesday sleeping off Monday's bender (whether it will be a celebratory or depression-induced bender remains to be seen), Wednesday, July 13 promises more important numbers. Look for semiconductor tech provider ASML Holdings ASML and hotel giant Marriott MAR to point the way midweek. Thursday, July 14 will bring us JP Morgan JPM and normally quiet Friday, July 15, will bring us CitiGroup C. These two banking stocks have the ability to drive or spook the market heading into the weekend, and set the tone for the big volume of releases due the week of Monday, July 18. The big wildcard for the earnings season will be what happens on the street between today and Alcoa on July 11. Two weeks are an eternity when your bottom line is at stake. Some are worried that the sell-side pulls down the numbers in the next two weeks, especially if previews come out and are less than stellar. We could also see companies get spooked by bad results and publish early, hoping to prevent a bad news cycle from pulling their stocks down even further. We did see a positive mini May-end earnings season, providing some hope that perhaps the good news will continue into July's Q2 results. Good news came in from across the market, including Federal Express FDX, Discover DFS, Jabil Circuit JBL and Bed, Bath and Beyond BBBY, among others. Earnings reports don't exist in a vacuum, of course, and a handful of market-impacting events are coming up the week of July 11th and 18th as well. Upcoming Events

• Tuesday, July 12: Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes, 2 p.m. EDT


• Wednesday, July 13: European bank stress tests are scheduled for a July 13 publication. Some expect a dozen or so banks to fail those tests, possibly impacting markets world-wide.


• Wednesday, July 13: Ben Bernanke is scheduled to testify before the House Financial Services Panel. Bernanke's words are always closely monitored and dissected by the markets.


• Friday, July 22: Three-month Greek Treasury bills are set to mature. Whether or not they'll be paid remains to be seen.