Most analysts expect it to be a bumpy earnings season. A few negative surprises could cause a little indigestion for stocks.

Second quarter earnings are very likely to be satisfactory in aggregate. A number of visible companies have warned of disappointments, but they are the exception rather than the rule. Earnings growth will probably be in the high-teens range when everything is tallied up.

I suspect that there are many analysts anxiously going through their old e-mail files to see if they have any smoking guns.

There are not a lot of catalysts right now ahead of the earnings season. We've had some solid gains in the market and I think people are in a kind of wait-and-see mood.

We had a lot of bumpy reports in the second quarter and we shouldn't have. The economy and production were very strong in the second quarter, and earnings should have been on the upside. The fact that they weren't is an important signal.

Folks are concerned that we need very impressive growth and earnings in order to justify the valuations that they continue to support.