Apple, Citi Highlight Busy Coming Week

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Earnings season will be in full swing in the coming week, likely overshadowing economic reports and other macroeconomic developments.

The financial services and tech sectors will take the spotlight, with bellwethers such as Citigroup(C), Wells Fargo(WFC), Apple(AAPL) and Intel(INTC) scheduled to report first-quarter results.

There will be fresh data on housing as well, though few expect any big improvements in the beleaguered sector. Investors, by now numb to dismal housing reports, are unlikely to give the data much attention amid a busy week of earnings.

Stocks were range-bound last week, as investors digested earnings disappointments from Google(GOOG) and Bank of America(BAC), but refrained from drawing conclusions about the broader earnings outlook so early in the season.

"So far, we have not seen any spillover from weak company results to the rest of the market. The stock market reaction has been very company-specific," said Paul Nolte, managing director of Dearborn Partners, saying he thinks the market still has enough momentum to go higher, despite a few disappointments.

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The holiday-shortened week will kick off with banking bellwether Citigroup's results on Monday. Analysts predict weak investment banking and trading results may drag down the bank's first quarter earnings , even though there will be improvements in credit and retail banking growth.

Wells Fargo delivers its numbers on Wednesday, while several regional banks including BB&T(BBT), Comerica(CMA) and Keycorp(KEY) will also report next week.

Disappointing revenue growth from JPMorgan Chase(JPM) and continuing mortgage woes at Bank of America have dampened optimism about banking earnings. But some analysts argued that investors may just need to be more patient with the sector.

Randy Warren, chief investment strategist of Warren Financial Services, said the healing in banks will take time and the upward sloping yield curve (which means higher interest spreads for banks) works to their advantage in the meantime. "If you wait till banks become strong, then you have probably waited too long."

In the tech space, investors will pay attention to management commentary on the impact of the Japan earthquake and tsunami on the sourcing of key components. On a more general note, investors will also like to see sustained improvements in corporate spending on technology as a sign that the fundamentals for tech are intact.