Investors eagerly await companies' earnings

By Adam Shell, USA TODAY
NEW YORK — Coming soon to Wall Street: a key quarterly exam on corporate profitability. At stake: the test results could determine if the stock market's recovery rally will fizzle or morph into a sustainable bull run.

On the eve of the second-quarter earnings reporting season, investors are bracing to see if the early bet they made on an economic rebound — and which jumpstarted a 40% stock rally — will actually be reflected in profit reports and companies' commentary about the future.

How much money companies made in the second quarter and how they made it will offer the first true snapshot whether the so-called "green shoots" recovery theory actually translated into better business conditions and bigger-than-expected earnings.