Coming Week: Buckle Up

Volatility has knocked around stocks on Wall Street in record ways, and the torrent of earnings releases set to hit this week could only exacerbate those moves, analysts say.

Amid an onslaught of news and concern over interbank lending, credit spreads and declining oil prices, the major averages managed to piece together a strong week that built on the lowest levels in five years. Over the last five sessions, the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 4.7%, the S&P 500 added 4.6% and the Nasdaq Composite jumped 3.7%.

Thus far in October, the Dow has swung each day in ranges of no less than 250 points. In fact, the index saw the first 1,000-point swing in its history just over a week ago, on Oct. 10. Much of this volatility has been blamed on the liquidation of assets due to the deleveraging of hedge funds and mutual funds. Rumors of poor performance at major players like Citadel Investments intensified the effect.

"The indiscriminate selling we've seen has been liquidation, no doubt. Everything is for sale," says Art Hogan, chief market analyst with Jefferies. Hogan points out that the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq have all fallen by roughly the same percentage, which indicates that funds are not selling stocks in one industry to invest in another.

"To a certain extent, the news about the deleveraging of the hedge fund industry is already behind the event," Hogan continues. "If you talk to a lot of hedge funds, they'll tell they have a very high level of cash right now. As we come into next week, the question now is whether the indiscriminate selling is behind us or not, are cash levels high enough for everyone's comfort, and can we start focusing on fundamentals."