Alcoa Inc (AA), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM): The Dow (.DJI) Kicks Off Earnings Season: What Should You Expect?

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) dominated in its most recently quarterly earnings report, growing its profit by 53% last quarter en route to trouncing analyst projections. Analysts don’t expect that great of a success again, but they’re still betting on increased earnings. Average Wall Street projections peg earnings per share of $1.39 this quarter, an amount that would represent year-over-year EPS growth of more than 16% over 2012’s Q1 EPS mark of $1.19. Experts polled by Thomson Reuters expect falling revenue, but that’s to be expected after the London Whale incident cost the company more than $6 billion.

Rising and falling
In this tale of two stocks, Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA)’s facing tough sledding ahead, with the economy still in recovery mode. Meanwhile, JPMorgan’s near-term future looks a lot brighter. While smart investors know to invest for the long term, the type of time window that mostly ignores the ups and downs of quarterly reports, it’s always a good thing to check in on how your portfolio’s doing. Will Alcoa and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) meet expectations? We’ll have to wait until Monday and Friday, respectively, to find out.

The article The Dow Kicks Off Earnings Season: What Should You Expect? originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Dan Carroll has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of JPMorgan Chase.

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