In the same period a year ago, Cisco reported EPS of $0.48 and $11.59 billion in revenues. Thomson Reuters has estimates of $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) and $12.18 billion in revenue. The analyst community remains somewhat muted on Cisco, although the consensus price target is up at $23.53, versus a recent pre-earnings price of $21.21 on the stock. Cisco’s 52-week trading range is $14.96 to $21.98.

Before today’s earnings announcement, Cisco’s stock traded within 3% of its 52-week high, but that mark was broached shortly after the results came out. If it holds through the open of regular trading tomorrow, Cisco will set a new high above $22 a share.

Cisco’s shares have faced serious resistance at $21.75 in March and April, and the April and May support has been around $20.25 to $20.40. We would say that Cisco has been in a narrow trading range of $20 to near $22 for all of 2013. Today’s report could easily set the stock up for a new price target.

The company’s CEO commented today:

Cisco is executing at a very high level in a slow, but steady economic environment. We are especially pleased with our ninth consecutive record revenue quarter. We are starting to see some good signs in the US and other parts of the world which are encouraging.

Cisco will offer guidance on its conference call this afternoon, but Thomson Reuters has a fourth-quarter consensus at $0.51 EPS and $12.50 billion in revenue. The year (ending in July) is pegged at $1.99 EPS and $48.67 billion in revenue.

As far as valuations are concerned for this DJIA component, Cisco trades at only about 10.6 times expected earnings, and its dividend yield is 3.2%.

Cisco’s stock chart offers a lot more than you might imagine with the stock within about 3% of its 52-week high. The $21.21 share price today compares to a 50-day moving average of $21.00, and that is only 1% less than the stock price. Cisco’s shares have faced serious resistance at $21.75 in March and April, and the April and May support has been around $20.25 to $20.40. We would say that Cisco has been in a narrow trading range of $20 to almost $23 for all of 2013. This could set the stock up for a new direction if there is a surprise.

Options volume is close enough to even on puts and calls to determine any solid options bias ahead of earnings. Our options review shows that options traders are braced for a share price move of up to about $0.70 to $0.75 in either direction.

Cisco has beat earnings for what may be seven or eight quarters now, but the shares have not always rallied because of guidance or because of other circumstances. Cisco remains somewhat in a turnaround and the concerns are out there that the recent down-talking by Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) will not leave Cisco unscathed from spending sequestration and lower capital spending.

If Cisco offers guidance, it will compare to the Thomson Reuters coming quarterly report consensus at $0.51 EPS and $12.50 billion in revenue. The year (ending in July) is pegged at $1.99 EPS and $48.67 billion in revenue.

As far as valuations are concerned for this DJIA component, Cisco trades at only about 10.6 times expected earnings, and its dividend yield is 3.2%.

The key trend is that companies still are managing to meet or beat earnings expectations. Corporate revenues are coming in soft, to the point that the concerns cannot just be ignored. These soft revenue reports are even after many analysts had lowered sales expectations ahead of and during earnings season.

We have just lowered our own forecast for the payrolls expectations with unemployment this Friday, following weaker TrimTabs payrolls and ADP payrolls reports. Even construction spending is starting to cool off. Market technician Carter Worth of Oppenheimer recently indicated on CNBC that the market is even more bifurcated than it has been in the past going into this May cycle.

One bit of good news may be that Merrill Lynch sees several breakout stocks despite the Sell in May history. We are growing more concerned that companies are lowering their expectations for sales in the rest of 2013. Europe keeps reporting lower and lower growth, or worse outright worse into recession territory. Japan’s only saving grace is coming from a massive stimulus package from the Bank of Japan under Abe.

Our take is that the easier earnings and sales growth cycle has peaked, at the same time that the stock market is up well above 10% after the first 4 months of the year. The stock market is supposed to be a voting proxy for what things will look like six months or so into the future. And long-term bond yields are hitting back at very low levels rather than rising. At some point, investors may not be able to stomach the valuations they are paying for these so-called defensive stocks and for high-yield dividends that are getting less high by the day. Junk bonds just hit another cycle low, and we even called it a crush-depth valuation.

We are now already at about 70% of the S&P 500 Index companies that have reported. What are we supposed to consider when growth is anemic on earnings and sales growth is nonexistent? We now may be facing only 2.5% or 3% earnings growth ahead, depending upon which source you are focusing on.  The risks ahead are combined for big multinational players because of a high dollar value and weak organic demand from Europe and Asia.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) was perhaps the biggest disappointment to us this whole earnings season if its drop was “only” about 10% from peak to trough. GE is the best yield of the DJIA conglomerates but shares were shelled after earnings. International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) is also showing no sales growth at all, and its “high” dividend hike was actually a severe disappointment to us. Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) has limited growth as well, and the only good news here on its earnings was that it was at least anticipated. Even United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) has taken it on the chin. More concern came in Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) and in J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) now that we have seen a serious bank call that the best has been seen for 2013 from financials. And what are you supposed to make of it if Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) is out yet again looking to cut capacity even further that will result in layoffs.

The lower copper and oil prices have to be considered as well, as they signal economic weakness ahead. Oil inventories just came in at the highest reading ever since they started tracking them.

Investors keep buying up stocks. Maybe that will continue, but the strong performance at some point has to be based upon something more than that the Fed and Treasury will keep the money cheap and keep the asset buying and quantitative easing measures around perpetually.

Read Also: Biotech Bubble Against Big Pharma Valuations?

What is funny is that we here are not really scared of stocks and valuations in many instances. The problem is that this is very selective and there are many cross currents that do not add up in a logical manner for value investors right now. Maybe the ISM forecast of the U.S. avoiding a 2013 recession and a surprising rise of consumer confidence are all that really matter ahead for the bulls.

Estimates come from Thomson Reuters and we have added color on each if applicable.

Pfizer Co. (NYSE: PFE) is set to report earnings Tuesday April 30. The drug giant is in the DJIA and is expected to report earnings of $0.56 EPS and $14.0 billion in revenue. Pfizer is within about 2% of a 52-week and multi-year high with a $219 billion market cap.

Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK) reports earnings on Wednesday May 1 and shares are within about 2% of multi-year highs. Merck is in the DJIA and earnings are expected to be $0.79 EPS and $11.09 billion in revenue.

Kraft Foods Inc. (NASDAQ: KRFT) is the most recently booted of the former DJIA stocks, but that was due to the split-up of the company to form Mondelez and Kraft as separate companies. We are not giving historic comparisons as analysts are generally very slow to smooth out spin-off data for a couple or few quarters. Estimates are $0.64 EPS on $4.49 billion in revenue.

American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) is a former DJIA stock as well and it is set to report earnings on Thursday, May 2. Earnings are expected to be $0.87 EPS and $8.64 billion in revenue. AIG is within about 3.5% of multi-year post-bailout highs. As a reminder, Uncle Sam owns no more shares and has no more official oversight of AIG’s daily operations outside of tight regulatory monitoring that should be expected for years.

General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) is another former DJIA component which is listed twice here today but it reports on Thursday, May 2. The big question is whether or not Uncle Sam and the Treasury will sell many more millions of shares as we have been led to believe in recent weeks. GM is expected to report earnings at $0.54 EPS on $36.6 billion in revenue. Expect Europe to remain a huge drag here. Amazingly enough, GM is within 0.5% of a 52-week high now.

On Thursday, May 2 we get International Paper (NYSE: IP) earnings. This is a former DJIA stock that is often forgotten about from the past, but it still has a $20.8 billion market cap. Its earnings are expected to be $0.74 EPS and $7.05 billion in revenue. Shares are about 3% short of a 52-week high.

American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) is holding its annual meeting on Monday, April 29, 2013. The news we have seen so far is that a vote proposed to split the role of chairman and CEO has failed.

Other DJIA Issues To Watch:

General Motors Company (NYSE: GM) and Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) are both former DJIA components and are both set to release April auto sales on Wednesday May 1. Again, GM reports earnings the following day. Ford has already released its earnings.

E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (NYSE: DD) is set to have its annual investor meeting on Thursday, May 2. DuPont shares are literally a few cents off of new 52-week highs.

International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM) has yet to confirm this expected dividend hike we have been waiting for. We named it among the other three dividend hikes of the DJIA stocks expected in April and we expect the company to be aggressive on the dividend front. A hike of only a few percent will not give us much satisfaction because IBM has no organic growth and the company’s dividend yield of 1.7% is pretty pathetic considering the yield of other DJIA and even against DJIA technology stocks.

24/7 Wall St. wanted to take a look at some of the bright spots in the earnings season so far to see which companies are leading the pack. Perhaps even more important than just leading other stocks is why. The list was frankly surprising, and some were charging to new multiyear or all-time highs. In order to qualify as a top earnings report, the companies had to be considered sector or economic barometers on their own right. They are all multi-billion-dollar companies, with large shareholder bases, that are either leaders in their sector or that can influence a broad group of companies.

The first-quarter earnings season winners include Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), Peabody Energy Corp. (NYSE: BTU) and Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT). None of the banks made it on the list, and the oil giants are still on deck.

Of the eight companies in this list, all but one have been publicly traded for more than 10 years, and all but two have been public companies for more than 25 years. Perhaps only Netflix is still considered a growth stock, but all eight put up growth-company style share price increases after reporting first-quarter earnings. And why not? All except Netflix pay a dividend yield that is currently better than bank interest on savings and all are virtually equally liquid.

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), the Wintel duo, were not expected to show much in the first quarter. Fourth-quarter PC shipments were down and not expected to improve, while Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system was generating some buzz, but not much in the way of sales. The two companies offered surprising, if not exciting results. Both companies’ share prices have remained above their prerelease levels, even though both remain well within their 52-week ranges. One possible note of caution going forward is that the channels may be stuffed with product that is not moving and we will not know that until next earnings season. Intel’s shares closed at $21.38 the day before the company’s earnings release and have risen more than 9% since then. Microsoft closed at $28.79 before reporting earnings last Thursday, and the shares rose to about $31.10 before pulling back slightly yesterday to close at $30.60.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) seems to post a new 52-week high every day. Perhaps there is increasing optimism that the company will buy out Verizon Wireless partner Vodafone Group PLC (NASDAQ: VOD). That buyout would be immediately accretive to revenue and profit, but it would leave Verizon with a punishing debt load. This may be one of those situations where everything is fine until it’s not. Verizon closed at $51.02 before reporting quarterly results and shares have climbed to $52.32, a level not seen in more than 10 years.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), like Verizon, seems to make a new high every day. The company appears to have fixed its quality control issues, and many of its most important lines of business are growing again. As we noted last week, we expect the 2.9% dividend yield to get a boost any day now. Johnson & Johnson closed at $81.71 the day before it reported quarterly earnings, and the stock now trades at $85.45, up 4.6% in just four trading days to a new all-time high.

Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) absolutely shattered expectations, and the shares have been on a tear for the past couple of days, posting another 52-week high yesterday of just under $220. Subscriber numbers were up, and much of the credit is going to the company’s original production of “House of Cards.” Original programming is expensive and eats into the bottom line, but given the demands for licensing content from other media houses, Netflix’s original programming should carry it to more growth going forward. Shares closed at $174.48 before Netflix reported earnings and have risen to a new high of $219.38, up 25%.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) earnings beat estimates and were just a bit shy on the top line. Paid clicks were up 20%, but the amount the company received for each click fell by 4%. That is still a net positive, however, and the plain fact is that Web searching is massive, and Google simply owns search in much of the world. That is not likely to change anytime — sooner or later. Shares closed at $765.91 just before Google announced earnings last Wednesday and have risen to $807.90, up 5.5%.

Peabody Energy Co. (NYSE: BTU) did not post a profit in the first quarter, but its loss was only a third as large at analysts had expected. Peabody and Arch Coal Inc. (NYSE: ACI), which reported in-line results yesterday, both expect sales to improve as natural gas prices rise for the rest of this year. The entire coal mining sector could begin to see improvements, based on these two miners’ results. Peabody’s shares have not held the 10% gain the stock posted last Thursday, mainly due to the overall weakness in the coal sector.

We said at the beginning that we would cover bright spots so far this earnings season, but there is one storm cloud that deserves to be mentioned as well. As we have noted before, Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) may be very bad news, not just for the mining and heavy equipment sector, but for the whole mining group. The big miners have struggled with rising costs and surging stockpiles. It could be several quarters before the mining sector sorts itself out. Caterpillar’s stock has not suffered though. The stock already had been battered and very weak numbers ahead were priced in. A large concentrated share buyback also will add support under the share price. Shares closed last Friday at $80.43 and have since risen to $84.10, up 4.6%, for a stock that is trading more than $25 a share lower than its 52-week high.

Thomson Reuters has its consensus estimates of $0.18 in earnings per share and for 17% sales growth to $1.02 billion. Be advised that this is expected to mark the first single quarter where Netflix had $1 billion in quarterly revenues. We would also note that a boutique firm called B. Riley raised its official analyst rating just this morning ahead of earnings. That being said, the upgrade was only to Neutral from Sell.

Note that Netflix has risen handily, and at one brief point it was up 100% in 2013 and up close to 300% from last year’s lows. Now Carl Icahn is firmly behind the company. Furthermore, Netflix trades at an expected 130 times 2013 earnings and 60 times expected 2014 earnings. Revenues are expected to climb to $4.27 billion in 2013 and more than $4.9 billion in 2014.

A review of options trading shows that options traders have priced in a move of up to about 9% in either direction ahead of the earnings report. Bloomberg even gave a larger “up to” estimate than that. Here are the key moving averages: 20-day at $173.81, 50-day at $180.11 and 200-day at $105.89. The consensus price targets have a wide disparity between mean and media, but splitting the two would generate a consensus target of close to $155 for Netflix shares, as analysts were way behind the curve here on the recovery.

Netflix is trading up 5% around the $171.50 mark ahead of earnings, against a 52-week range of $52.81 to $197.62.

One key issue is that we have never updated our own DJIA 2013 upside target of 14,590 even though the DJIA went 300 points over that. Our value of the stock market will be updated soon. We still think stocks have not peaked for the year, but the bull market just got too far ahead of itself. We are seeing a front-running of the “sell in May and go away” mantra. Again, this is good news for long-term investors.

Earnings season is well into full swing and we have evaluated many DJIA stocks that have reported earnings. In doing so, we have seen which ones investors are likely to build positions in on weakness ahead and those that will require more selling or more weakness before investors start buying. We are evaluating the current price performance through earnings season and our expectations ahead on the following DJIA stocks: International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM), General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE), McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD), Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC), Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) and Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA).

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) is the first big concern, as it is actually the largest weighting of all stocks in the DJIA. This drop of almost 7% to $193 is after closing at $207.15 yesterday. We analyzed earnings and the bottom line is that IBM just cannot grow. So how is that good news? IBM will have some trimming again in its ranks (layoffs), and it is likely to sell off a couple of underperforming drags on the business. The company’s services backlog rose by $1 billion to $141 billion. This takes IBM back to where the stock was at the start of 2013, and we expect a big dividend increase announcement and an even larger stock buyback announcement in the coming days. A $14 drop in the stock price may not mark the absolute bottom, but long-term investors are likely to start nibbling in here and may try to build a position in the coming weeks if they missed the run.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) is a dominant economic force, but not so much when it comes to the DJIA because of the index being price-weighted. GE earnings were truly nothing to write home about, and the stock is down 4% at $21.78. Its chart performance ahead of earnings was signaling that the price rise of 14% from the end of 2012 to the $23.90 year high was running too far ahead of itself. But now shares are down almost 10% from their recent peak after a 4% drop to $21.75. With a 3.3% dividend yield that is higher than all major conglomerates, investors likely will view any further weakness merely as an opportunity to start nibbling and legging into the stock.

McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) is down 2% at $99.85 after its earnings disappointed. The reality is that McDonald’s just is unable to keep up with the gains made in prior years, and it could be in a no-growth era now. Its market value is $100 billion and is worth more than all of the public restaurant stocks combined. McDonald’s also trades at a P/E premium to the broader market. That being said, Mickey-D’s has a 3% dividend yield that is the envy of other defensive restaurant stocks. The pullback is still only $4.00 shy of the 52-week high, and we think that investors may not really get aggressive until (or if) this stock gets back down to $95 or so.

Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) is set to report earnings Monday, but this industrial equipment giant just signaled another month of lower sales in its monthly update. The numbers are really bad, but not as bad as the drop in February: Asia/Pacific was down 24% in March, after being down 26% in February. Latin America was actually up 12% in March, after being up 3% in February. So on a down day, Caterpillar is up by 0.2% on what looks like bad news ahead of earnings. We do not expect a good earnings report, but the stock is barely $2 above the 52-week low and analysts still expect the stock to rise $27 from this base.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) is actually up 3.5% at $29.82, despite earnings without excitement. We identified this as one of the DJIA stocks with the most upside for 2013, and so far it is living up to that. We had no illusions about the Windows 8 sales being great, but the software giant just is not as down and out as some have considered. That 3.2% dividend yield helps too.

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) managed to show sales and earnings that managed to hold up better than the bears were expecting. One analyst even said he cannot see what the bears are hanging on to, and the company is trying to make its architecture sales growth ramp even further as it tries to really get into mobile. At $22.30, this is above the pre-earnings price, and the dividend yield is a whopping 4.2%. One word of caution is that the stock price is close to the consensus analyst target, but it is still down $7 from a 52-week high.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) has managed to not sell off, and the stock is back at a decade high. We cannot help but wonder how much lower the dividend yield of 4.2% will be able to go from share price appreciation, but that being said, it already went higher than what we expected. Investors are likely to step in if there are any real pullback opportunities here. The question we have is how much higher it can go if it leverages up further to take more of the Verizon Wireless stake from Vodafone.

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) is still very important to the economy, but it is very low on the totem pole for DJIA stocks because of such a low price. We identified that its earnings were just not good enough because the stock rose so much this year and was the best DJIA stock of 2012. There is a huge discount to book value, and banking analysts Meredith Whitney and Dick Bove are calling for much higher prices.

Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) showed a drag on earnings due to the impact of currencies. There is still a secular threat to soft drinks in developed markets as well. With this stock still within pennies of a multiyear high, it seems that those who want to own Coke do own Coke. Also note that this beverage giant is trading at close to 20 times this year’s expected earnings.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) has the recall and quality control issues behind it. Earnings allowed it to hit a new all-time yet again. Most of its business lines are growing, and currency did not kill its efforts. The 2.9% dividend is about to go up, and we expect that as soon as the coming week.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is still lower than it was when it reported earnings. The banking giant is still up 10% or so in 2013. The 3.2% dividend yield is keeping investors interested, and the consensus price target remains close to 20% implied upside at $55 on the stock. If this weakens further, investors likely will start nibbling in again over the coming weeks.

We already have said that Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) needs to lose its “earnings season indicator” status. This stock remains in the doghouse, as it is only 2% above the 52-week low. A turnaround here requires much patience and optimism. Investors are overlooking this one, but it has such a small DJIA weighting that it does not matter much to investors on a standalone basis.

The DJIA is down only about 300 points or so from its peak and is still up more than 10% for 2013. We would be careful in not trying to pick any firm or hard bottoms in any individual stocks. You saw how bad gold went recently for those who tried bottom fishing. Building a position can be done over weeks or even months. If “sell in May and go away” takes hold yet again in 2013, patience will be rewarded.

Our initial take is that Alcoa may put a negative bias on the earnings trends. The good news is that we think the strong companies will be rewarded, and that the likely weakness from Alcoa is company specific or at least trend-specific to issues that are problems for Alcoa but not for the economy. The reason we feel this way is that Alcoa remains troubled and it is in a very hard industry that may not have the same problems as many other parts in the global growth engine. Alcoa was even listed among the top issues in our recent piece called Ten Things That Could Wreck the Bull Market.

We still look for Alcoa to maintain that the aluminum industry will be double by the end of this decade. Estimates from Thomson Reuters have dropped. The per-share earnings estimate was $0.10 at the end of last week, but that is now $0.08. Revenue estimates are lower as well, as the $5.93 billion in sales projected just last week is now set at $5.89 billion. The company may or may not offer specific guidance, but the Thomson Reuters consensus targets for the second quarter are $0.14 earnings per share and $6.23 billion in revenue. For all of 2013, the consensus estimates are $0.53 per share and $24.4 billion. Alcoa trades at about 15 times this year’s earnings estimates and just under 10 times the expected 2014 earnings estimates.

The weak stock price is another reason we are cautious. We have warned repeatedly that the market has lost its ability to properly discount events. That being said, Alcoa was down about 5% so far in 2013, while the broad markets were up more than 10% in the first quarter. Shares are mildly positive so far on Monday morning, but only by two cents at $8.26, against a 52-week range of $7.97 to $10.24.

We tried to track the aluminum exchange traded funds, and they are close to 52-week lows as well, but we have to point out that they are too thin in trading volume to be of much help. Century Aluminum Co. (NASDAQ: CENX) is in the middle of its 52-week range, while Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. (NYSE: RS) and Kaiser Aluminum Corp. (NASDAQ: KALU) are actually much closer to their 52-week highs than they are the lows.

Another issue to consider is that Alcoa has a high short interest. That was pegged at 69.1 million shares, and while that is certainly not a high, it remains rather elevated at 4.6 days to cover.

We cannot use much on the charts here. While the stock is close to a 52-week low, Alcoa’s share price is challenging the lows going back to right after the great recovery from the recession. Lastly, analysts are just not that positive, as the consensus price target objective is only $9.73 as of now.

Our only issue is that the consensus has drifted lower and lower, and none of the internals look all that promising. What if everyone is wrong and things are just not as bad as investors fear? Alcoa might not need to have good earnings to get interest again. Maybe the company just has to be less-bad than expected.

24/7 Wall St. has created a brief calendar of the major earnings announcements by day. Estimates have come from Thomson Reuters, although we would quickly point out that estimates may change at any time and may have likely changed marginally by the time mid-week gets here. We have also provided color on each.

This week we saw three of our ten suppositions come up which were in our Ten Things That Could Wreck The Bull Market. We also issued a quarter-end piece that was intended to act as the Blueprint for the Bull Market In April as well. Lastly, here are our DJIA dividend hike predictions for April as earnings season kicks off.

One thing needs to be addressed and this has not yet been covered enough by much of the financial press. The strength of the U.S. dollar will impact US exports and that will be something that companies either address that came up of late or which will impact earnings in the second quarter outlook.

Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) will be the first of the DJIA components to report earnings for the first quarter of 2013. Investors always try to use this as a barometer but we would warn against putting so much faith in “The Alcoa Indicator” because the company is troubled and in a hard industry to boot. Look for Alcoa to maintain that the aluminum industry will still be double by the end of this decade. Estimates are $0.10 EPS and a 1.2% drop in revenue to $5.93 billion. Alcoa used to say “You Make The Call” on commercials, but now it simply asks “What Bull Market?” because its stock is down about 5% so far in 2013.

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY) is set to report on Wednesday and this stock has tried to recover from its past earnings blunders. Estimates are for a 13% earnings gain to $1.68 EPS and a 24% sales gain to $3.4 billion. This retailer’s stock price is up 13% so far in 2013.

Carmax Inc. (NYSE: KMX) will also give us the first real look at auto sale earnings. The car dealer is expected to report earnings of $0.46 EPS on a 10% gain in sales to $2.73 billion. Carmax shares are up 10% so far in 2013.

Also Read: 19 Stocks Expected to Rise 50% to 100%

J B Hunt Transport Services Inc. (NASDAQ: JBHT) will lead the transportation sector earnings with its report on Thursday. The trucker is not always a true proxy, but investors will try to garner what it means for trucking players, then perhaps for rail players, and perhaps even air freight shippers. Estimates are $0.64 EPS on a gain of almost 11% in revenues to $1.29 billion. Just keep in mind that this stock is up a sharp 22% so far in 2013.

Family Dollar Stores Inc. (NYSE: FDO) will report earnings Wednesday and will lead the dollar store chains ahead. Due to a sharp drop right after the first of the year, this stock is down about 6.5% so far in 2013. The dollar store owner and operator is expected to report earnings of $1.23 EPS and a 17% sales gain to $2.89 billion.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) will report earnings on Friday morning. The bank with the fortress balance sheet is expected to report earnings of $1.38 EPS but revenue is expected to be down 5% at $25.96 billion. Book value is $51.30 per share and shares are up just a hair under 10% so far this year despite shares pulling back 6% from the fresh highs.

Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) is also reporting Friday morning and its shares have pulled back about 4% off their highs, but this remains the safest of the big safest banks in America and its stock is still up almost 10% so far in 2013. Estimates are $0.88 EPS on expected flat revenue of $21.58 billion. Wells Fargo trades above its book value.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was on last week’s list because it was at a new 52-week low and losing favor by the day. Shares listed lower this past week but ultimately closed up for the week. It is hard to celebrate a rise from $430.47 to $431.72 this last Friday, but that was the highest close of the week for Apple. What is starting to drive interest are these persistent rumors that Apple is aiming to launch a cheaper iPhone for emerging markets so that it can capture more market share and reach a wider audience. Our friends over at Motley Fool pointed out that this was actually the third time this rumor has been around, so they wonder if there are legs to the rumor.

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY) was touted by Andrew Bary in Barron’s as potentially being a takeover target for Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A). We would caution that it has not paid a dividend yet, and its shares have been “on sale” at a discount of 20% from its high due to poor sales metrics. Barron’s said it has strong profits and steady growth and was a great story in the 20th century that could be an even better story in the 21st century.

Elan Corp. PLC (NYSE: ELN) saw its stock rise by more than 5.5% after the close on Friday to $12.10 after the company provided an update on the Tysabri restructuring transaction and further information regarding the company’s recently announced proposed $1 billion share repurchase program. The deal closing with Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) is expected to occur in the coming weeks, and the share buyback will take place on Monday in a Dutch tender with a price range of $11.25 to $13.00 per share.

Eldorado Gold Corp. (NYSE: EGO) has many projects around the world, but it is battered just like the rest of the major gold miners and producers. It owns 95% of a project in Greece that drew thousands of protesters in the area and that was after the site had been firebombed last month. Again, this is just one of the future projects but it is a hold up nonetheless. At $9.51, the 52-week range is $9.22 to $16.20.

Genworth Financial Inc. (NYSE: GNW) closed within 2% of a new 52-week high on Friday. The company is still trying to turn around and get out from under some prior mortgage insurance and other operations. Barron’s touted the stock as finally about to be rewarding investors. A new, well-respected CEO is partly credited, and at about half of book value the price thrown out is that Genworth could be worth as much as $18 or more.

READ ALSO: BEWARE AN ACTIVIST INVESTOR BUBBLE

Interactive Brokers Group Inc. (NASDAQ: IBKR) took the top spot in Barron’s for Online Broker of the Year with superb trading technology, improved portfolio analysis, and enhanced educational offerings. Also touted was its mobile app alerting you to market opportunities around the world in real time as well as the ability to trade almost every asset class. We might not consider this a stock story per se, but Interactive Brokers has a market cap of a mere $704 million. That is tiny compared to the big-three like E*TRADE Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: ETFC) at $3.2 billion, TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (NYSE: AMTD) at $11.4 billion, and Charles Schwab Corp. (NYSE: SCHW) at $22.5 billion.

iShares MSCI Italy Capped Index (NYSEMKT: EWI) will be on watch on Monday after Fitch downgraded Italy’s sovereign credit rating on Friday. The Italian markets were already closed, and this ETF dropped about 1% before recovering to close flat at $12.61 on Friday, against a 52-week range of $9.21 to $14.63.

Live Nation Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: LYV) closed within seven cents of a 52-week high on Friday, at $11.26 against the range of $8.01 to $11.33. Barron’s touted the $2.1 billion concert promotion giant as adding another 5 million people to its venue audience by 2015, and an analyst for the Cove Street Capital firm was quoted saying that stock could rise to $14.50 over the next couple of years. Wall St. has a consensus target of $12.33 for the one-year outlook and a street-high of $14, but we would caution that the number of analysts here is very small.

Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) had reports from all over the Web on Friday night that Sir Howard Stringer was planning to retire as chairman of Sony in June. Stringer stepped down as CEO last year after taking on that role in 2005. Unfortunately for Sony, the loss of importance has continued. Investors may take this as good news as a result, but the move may not be viewed the same as Stringer leaving the CEO post. With its ADRs at $15.59, the 52-week range is $9.57 to $22.05.

READ ALSO: STOCKS WHERE ANALYSTS EXPECT 50% to 100% UPSIDE

ViroPharma Inc. (NASDAQ: VPHM) was touted on Friday evening by Jim Cramer on Mad Money as an orphan drug maker that is just starting to attract attention and its blood disorder drug called Cinryze could fetch $700 million in annual sales. This was up more than 4% at $26.60 Friday evening, against a 52-week range of $19.02 to $31.36. Its market cap as of the close was $1.67 billion.

VIVUS Inc. (NASDAQ: VVUS) rose by 2.4% to $11.70 on Friday. The company sent out an email late on Friday confirming that affiliates of First Manhattan Co. have an 8.8% stake of the outstanding shares and that the group has submitted a notice of nomination of six director candidates. As a reminder, this emerging drug player as been held down and it is one of the stocks that Wall St. analysts believe has more than 50% upside to the current share price. We still cannot help but to ask if all of this activist shareholder trend is forming an activist investor bubble.

Westport Innovations Inc. (NASDAQ: WPRT) had its CEO come on Jim Cramer’s Mad Money for an interview on CNBC. Even after shares are up 12% since his last appearance, Cramer said that Westport remains the way to play the move to CNG engines. At $29.16, its 52-week range is $21.93 to $50.19 and its market cap is $1.56 billion.

Barron’s listed four chip stocks that could rebound that haven’t risen with the market in “Tech Trader” this weekend. These were Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM), Skyworks Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ: SWKS), Cirrus Logic Inc. (NASDAQ: CRUS) and LSI Corp. (NASDAQ: LSI).

No rest for the wicked. Stay tuned!