Stock market watches closely as companies report earnings

The whole world _ well, the investor world, at least _  is watching.

Earnings season, that is.

Today begins the short, scary and oh-so-telling stretch when companies report how they fared in the prior quarter. This time around we find out how things went down during Q2, and there are signs it won’t be pretty and it won’t be hopeful.

There’s lots of negativity in the air anyway, what with last week’s less-than-robust jobs report here in the U.S., not to mention the pall over Europe cast by the unsettled economies of Greece, Spain and the like.

Now, 42 companies have said that they will report lower profits than had been expected, a result of the global economic slowdown.

It remains to be seen what that sort of gloomy news will mean to the stock market. It’s possible it’s already been factored in to share prices by investors. If not, though, how can a further drop not be expected? Then again, if it has been, any bit of positive news in the coming weeks could spark optimism and an uptick in prices.

It’s that time of the year.