Coming Week: Batten the Hatches

The recent earnings drizzle will turn to a downpour in the coming week, while inflation figures and rising tensions in the Middle East could also help create a market tempest.

"The stock market has reacted negatively to the attacks traded between Israel and Lebanon because this situation has the potential to be even more explosive, as it may lead to the involvement of Iran and Syria," says Robert Pavlik, chief investment strategist at Oaktree Asset Management. "The potential to disrupt the flow of crude has market watchers fearing that soaring energy prices could cause an extended pullback in stock prices and may lead to a greater slowdown in economic growth."

The earnings storm starts on Monday, with Dow component Citigroup (C Quote) releasing quarterly results before the bell. According to Thomson First Call, analysts expect the mega-bank to post a second-quarter profit of $1.06 a share, up from 97 cents a year earlier, on revenue of $22.68 billion.

Also scheduled for Monday are reports from Commerce Bancorp(CBH Quote), Harley-Davidson(HDI Quote) and Mattel(MAT Quote).

On Tuesday, the earnings lineup includes corporate giants such as United Technologies(UTX Quote), Merrill Lynch(MER Quote) and Coca-Cola(KO Quote).

Internet goliath Yahoo!(YHOO Quote) is slated to announce results as well. Wall Street is looking for the company to report earnings of 11 cents a share, down from 13 cents a year earlier, on $1.14 billion in revenue.

And IBM(IBM Quote) will be another big tech name in focus Tuesday. Big Blue is expected to post a profit of $1.29 a share, compared with $1.12 a year earlier, on revenue of $21.89 billion.

More tech giants will take the stage Wednesday, when Apple Computer(AAPL Quote), eBay(EBAY Quote) and Motorola(MOT Quote) report.

Intel(INTC Quote) also is slated to release results. Analysts predict the chipmaker earned 14 cents a share in the second quarter, down from 33 cents last year, on revenue of $8.3 billion.