The Financial Times has a nice roundup of the upcoming earnings season:

Analysts expect average earnings for S&P 500 companies to have fallen 13.2 per cent in the second quarter, according to Thomson Reuters. At the start of the second quarter in April, earnings were forecast to decline just 2 per cent. A fall in second-quarter earnings would mark a run of four negative quarters in a row, the worst performance since profits fell during all of 2001 and the first quarter of 2002.

Financial companies are expected to once again lead the profit retreat, with an estimated earnings decline of 68 per cent caused by writedowns and credit-related losses.

Comments on the near-term outlook from Merrill Lynch and Citigroup, which report next week, will be closely scrutinised to gauge how much more pain is likely to be inflicted on banks and their investors.

Earnings at consumer discretionary companies are expected to be down 19 per cent, while profit expectations at materials groups have recently turned negative with a forecast fall of 1 per cent for the quarter. Energy, whose profits are set to rise 28 per cent, and technology, where earnings should climb 16 per cent, will be the second-quarter bright spots, analysts predict.

Excluding financials, second-quarter earnings are seen rising 8.6 per cent. But if energy earnings are also excluded, that rise drops to a gain of 3.2 per cent for the quarter. The projected decline in second-quarter earnings is less than the fall of 17.5 per cent seen for the first quarter and the fourth-quarter slide of 25.1 per cent.

Analysts still expect a rebound in the third quarter, although this may change if guidance from reporting companies disappoints investors.