Quiet start for major market indices with earnings bullish, but bankruptcies in the banking sector holding down gains. This coming week will be see the largest amount of earnings reports for the third quarter, but economic news will be a key as well. Last week saw minor losses for stocks despite better than expected earnings results, but the bulls are hoping another week of strong results will be enough to push the major market indices to new highs.

Thomson Reuters states that third quarter earnings have been very strong so far with 81 percent of S&P 500 (^SPX) companies beating estimates. This helped push stocks up at the beginning of the earnings season, but now expectations have gotten so high that even strong results have not provided much strength. Case in point, shares of Verizon (VZ), which are down this morning despite beating expectations.

Verizon reported this morning that revenues in the third quarter rose 10.2 percent, though wireless services were up 24.4 percent. The Dow (^DJI) component earned 60-cents a share excluding onetime items, a penny above estimates. Analysts were pleased to see that the company added 1.2 million net wireless customers in the quarter. VZ shares are struggling to open the session positively with the stock trading just under $29, right in the middle of its 52-week range.

Corning (GLW) also announced this morning and the results were better on the bottom and top line. Nonetheless, the stock is struggling to trade in positive territory this morning. The company beat earnings estimates by 3-cents a share with revenues of $1.48 billion, above the $1.42 billion expected. GLW shares are up more than 40 percent in the past 12-months and have more than doubled from their lows in March.

Bank stocks could be under pressure Monday following a number of bankruptcies in the sector over the weekend. This takes the total number of bank failures to 106 with Capmark Financial the big name in the group. This commercial real estate lender had creditors that include Citigroup (C) and JPMorgan (JPM) with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co and GMAC major investors in the firm. The banking sector also got bad news from Rochdale Securities analyst Richard Bove who downgraded SunTrust (^STI), Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) and US Bancorp (USB).

Insurer ING (ING) is also in the news after the company announced it would break itself apart to appease antitrust authorities in Europe. This has put pressure on the stock, which is down nearly 10 percent Monday morning to a price below $16.

Jody Osborne
Senior Staff Writer & Options Strategist
Optionetics.com ~ Your Options Education Site

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