More than a third of the companies whose shares are included in the S&P 500 index will report their earnings this week.

Bank of America analysts note that of the companies that have already released their first-quarter earnings, 27 have raised their earnings-per-share expectations — the best start to the season since 2012.

However, despite a promising start to the reporting season, the S&P 500 was down last week (and has also been bearish since Monday morning). According to Business Insider, this could be due to several factors:

→ reports look positive because forecasts were initially lower;

→ the impact of the banking crisis is not yet fully reflected in the results of companies;

→ the growing risk of default on federal debt is factored into the stock market valuation. The cost of CDS (insurance against default) updates multi-month highs.

Also, from the technical side, note the restraining influence of the resistance line (1) 4,170, which we have pointed out several times. If the reports this week turn out to be disappointing, this may lead to a bearish breakdown of the median line of the current channel (shown in blue), which will open up the prospect of another descent to its lower border (2).

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