The Most Important Earnings Season Ever

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- For most people in normal times, it's tough to get worked up about such things as non-GAAP operating income, amortization and depreciation, and SGA expenses and provisions for loan losses.

But these are most certainly not normal times, and this autumn is shaping up as the most intriguing earnings season in recent memory. The question on everyone's mind is pretty obvious: What will the third-quarter results of the nation's biggest corporations tell us about the relative health of the economy and the potential for recovery? And is the enormous stock market rally, building since late spring, sustainable?

"There's no question that these earnings, for the market, are going to be absolutely critically important," says Paul Mendelsohn, the chief strategist at Windham Financial, an adviser to institutional investors.

No one's expecting all the mysteries to be solved. But investors nonetheless will be scouring the earnings press releases, 10-Q filings and executive conference calls for at least some clues on where the economy stands.

As ever, the bellwethers come first. Already this week, Intel(INTC Quote) and JPMorgan(JPM Quote) impressed investors with their third-quarter results. Up Thursday are IBM(IBM Quote), Google(GOOG Quote), Goldman Sachs(GS Quote) and Citigroup(C Quote); Friday morning brings General Electric(GE Quote). And with the heart of the reporting season upon us, a few clear themes have developed.

First, it's all about the revenue. To a degree not seen in a long time, the bottom line will take a back seat to the top. "I've never seen people more concerned about revenue," says Michael O'Rourke, chief market strategist at the trading firm BTIG who writes for TheStreet. (It is, after all, called earnings season, not revenue season.)