earnings

It's been awfully quiet on the earnings front in recent weeks, and there's a reason: This is the time of year when accountants are nailing down the financials for the fiscal quarters that ended in September. Later this week, the conference calls will begin trickling in, and then it will be a deluge of quarterly reports until early November.

Even as investors reel from the stock-market roller coaster this week, Wall Street is moving on, with plenty of news on the way. Next week will bring headlines about retail and gaming earnings, as well as quarterly reports from News Corp., SodaStream and some newly public Chinese firms.

When is a 27% increase in sales, and a doubling of profits, bad news? It certainly sounds like an exceptional circumstance, but that's where Alcoa finds itself today, having missed earnings estimates and facing a discouraging free cash flow.

Wall Street will watch second quarter earnings for telltale signs that the economy has slowed or that corporate margins are even tighter than is feared. But the ones reporting negative outlooks are likely to go back to the same old solution they used so often in recent years: layoffs.

Earnings season is near, and investors, as always are worried. Don't fret too much, though: Odds are that your company will come out on top on the bottom line -- because most do. But what will separate the winners from the whiners for the coming quarter? Here are the three key factors.

Walmart is launching an online delivery service -- "Walmart To Go" -- that will allow customers to buy food, medicine and other household goods online and have them delivered to their doors. Trefis takes a look at what this new growth opportunity means for the world's largest retailer.

Priceline recently announced a partnership with Asian low-cost carrier Jetstar Airways: Now, Priceline will provide bookings at thousands of Asian hotel properties on Jetstar's website. The potential gains from the deal should move the needle on Priceline's stock.

Bath & Body Works is Limited Brands' second most valuable division after Victoria's Secret, representing 25% of the firm's estimated equity value. Trefis looks at how this key division is recovering from the recession, and what that could mean for the company overall.

Investors have abandoned Research In Motion, which may finally make it a good investment again. Twenty months ago, the smartphone company's shares traded at $85. The stock now changes hands at around $49. But there are good reasons to expect that it won't stay that low for long.

Everyone knows that the typical American household has been running in place or falling behind financially, thanks to stagnant wages and rising prices. But a new study from the the Economic Policy Institute shows that the problem has been endemic not for years, but for decades.