So Alcoa and GE reported their earnings last week. Big yawn. Ok they both had decent numbers, but this is the week we've been waiting for. Apple will kick things off tomorrow, followed by Microsoft on Thursday, both after the market close. Can you say the clash of the titans?

Oh yes, there will be earnings announcement from little known companies as well in that period. You might have heard of some of them like, Yahoo, Pepsi, Goldman Sachs, eBay, Caterpillar, AT&T, and 3M. :-)

Both Apple and Microsoft (News - Alert) have a habit of exceeding the forecasts and Apple has been closing in on Microsoft in terms of the quarterly revenue figures. In terms of profits though Apple (News - Alert) still has a long way to go.

My gut feeling is that both Apple and Microsoft will report great numbers, Microsoft will continue to top Apple's revenues by a bit, but Apple will have a note of caution for its next release as it grapples with the iPhone (News - Alert) 4 antenna troubles. A lot of credibility has been lost and Apple has a battle on its hands to get it back, possibly with iPhone 5. Remember how long it took the reluctant Microsoft to leave the much maligned Vista behind and move to Windows 7?

Update: IBM (News - Alert) just reported its second quarter earning, up 13% from a year ago and topping forecasts, but apparently falling short of the whisper numbers. Stock is down by over 4% after-hours.