Get Ready for Earnings Reports

We may sit in neutral until Friday of this week and enjoy fireworks on the Fourth, but get ready for some market fireworks kicking off next week. It's that time again, the time I love to hate: earnings season.

The first week of earnings season gives us the usual suspects, with Alcoa (AA) leading it off. Alcoa is generally benign and useless. It feels like the athlete who just won't retire from the game yet continues receiving attention despite performance that is underwhelming, self-serving and basically of no use to anyone. Perhaps I'm being a bit too harsh on Alcoa, but aren't folks really more concerned with what Wells Fargo (WFC) and JPMorgan (JPM) have to say in regard to banking and the economy? These "should" be two of the strongest names in the group, but JPMorgan has a big and ugly shadow trailing it right now. The focus here is going to be on the current size of its "hedging" losses and where it sees that number going forward....390 more words left in this article. To read them, just click below and try Real Money FREE for 14 days.

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