It’s been looking bleak for equities, the end of a five year bull run, doom and gloom abound. Peter Garnry, Saxo Bank's Head of Equity Strategy, says estimated earnings are down almost three percent so far this year and he points out that, if annualised, earnings would be down around thirteen percent. So can this week, the heart of the US earnings season, offer light at the end of the tunnel? A number of large cap firms are due to reveal earnings this week and perhaps give the market fresh volatility. Among the big names are Citibank, Intel, IBM, Coca Cola and Google. With tech stocks taking such a hammering in recent weeks, Google may offer some cheer with growth expected to be around twenty five percent.

“This week is all about the banks and it’s all about the technology companies and then on Friday, as is tradition, we have General Electric…we know from JP Morgan and Wells Fargo, refinancing and mortgage activity are down a  lot more than fifty precent…” says Peter and against that sort of negative data, this could be the most important earnings season for five years.