Coming Week: Earnings Fireworks on Tap

Once the last of the hamburgers and hot dogs are eaten and the grill has cooled off, investors will put the lazy long weekend behind them and start gearing up for the beginning of the earnings flood.

Alcoa(AA Quote) will kick off the second-quarter earnings season when it reports results after Wednesday's closing bell. Analysts expect the aluminum giant will post a loss of 34 cents a share on revenue of $3.93 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

But the real earnings hurricane won't hit until the following week, turning the next five sessions into the proverbial calm before the storm.

Aside from Alcoa, the roster of companies set to report results next week include less sexy names like Ruby Tuesday(RT Quote), Family Dollar(FDO Quote), Pepsi Bottling(PBG Quote), 3Com(COMS Quote) and Infosys(INFY Quote).

Conversely, JPMorgan Chase(JPM Quote), Intel(INTC Quote), Bank of America(BAC Quote), Citigroup (C Quote) and Nokia (NOK Quote), among several others, are scheduled to report between July 13 and July 17.

James Paulsen, chief investment strategist with Wells Capital Management, acknowledges the coming week could be the quietest of the second-quarter earnings season. But he argues that it's never too early to prepare for the brunt of earnings releases, considering the impact is greater at the start of every reporting cycle.

"The beta of these early reports is always greater than the beta of the later reports," Paulsen said. "So even though there are fewer next week, the market impact is going to be big at the front end and it decays as the vast majority of the reports cross. Investors shouldn't get too worried about this stuff. They should worry about next year, not next week. But a trader has to worry about this."

1 What would best describe your stance heading into the coming week of trading? Bullish Bearish Neutral 2 Which of these sectors do you think is set to move up in the coming week? --Choose One--Aerospace and DefenseAirlinesAutomobilesBeverages and Food ProductsBiotechnologyCommercial BanksComputers and PeripheralsConsumer NondurablesEnergy Equipment & ServicesHMOs and HospitalsHomebuildingInsuranceIntegrated OilInternet, Software ServicesInvestment Bankers and BrokersMediaMultiline RetailPharmaceuticalsPrecious MetalsSemis, Semi EquipmentTelecom EquipmentTobacco and AlcoholWireless CommunicationsUtilities 3 Which of these sectors do you think is set to move down in the coming week? --Choose One--Aerospace and DefenseAirlinesAutomobilesBeverages and Food ProductsBiotechnologyCommercial BanksComputers and PeripheralsConsumer NondurablesEnergy Equipment & ServicesHMOs and HospitalsHomebuildingInsuranceIntegrated OilInternet, Software ServicesInvestment Bankers and BrokersMediaMultiline RetailPharmaceuticalsPrecious MetalsSemis, Semi EquipmentTelecom EquipmentTobacco and AlcoholWireless CommunicationsUtilities View the results without voting