Larry Wachtel Reports Quotations

Earnings statements will make or break the market this week. I'll be watching the reports coming from some of the technology names, because I think that sector may lead the way this year.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we get numbers on industrial production and housing and big reports from Intel, Coke, Johnson & Johnson -- maybe that can turn us around.

Cisco reports earnings tomorrow (Tuesday) and certainly that stock is at a price where there may be a split.

The only thing that was positive today was that there was nothing negative, especially no lousy economic reports that we've had over the last four trading days. The summer doldrums have not appeared so far.

Confession may be good for the soul, but not on Wall Street. The negative pre-announcements that have been with us for the past two weeks has begun to accelerate with 21 confessions yesterday (Wednesday) and a handful this morning. This sets up some fear and trembling about the wide range of reports to come through most of July.