Coming Week: Data Rule in Earnings Quiet

All's quiet on the corporate front as companies begin to prepare second-quarter earnings reports, which investors anxiously await.

The second quarter officially ends on Tuesday, and many companies have entered their quarterly "quiet periods," during which they lock their lips until financial results are released. The only major statements firms are likely to make between now and then are warnings of worse results than they initially forecast.

"We're kind of in a holding pattern, a time when we're about to start getting earnings," says Roger Young, a portfolio manager at Miller/Howard Investments. "What that implies is ... guidance other than negative guidance is kind of put on hold."

Marian Kessler, co-portfolio manager of the Becker Value Equity Fund, notes that firms are also revising the "really draconian forecasting" provided in January for full-year results. Markets have improved drastically in the intervening time, and the economy has at last started to show signs of life. ...