Caterpillar the next day End Of Day 22/04/2013 as predicted watch out for the next round of earnings

In the week ahead, it'll be up to the next round of earnings to turn sentiment around.

Another third of the Dow industrials will report with Caterpillar (CAT) ,

United Technologies Corp. (UTX) , DuPont (DD) , Travelers Cos. (TRV) , AT&T Inc. (T), Procter & Gamble Co. (PG), Boeing Co. (BA), 3M Co. (MMM) , Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) , Chevron Corp. (CVX) releasing results.

Caterpillar the next day End Of Day 22/04/2013 as predicted

Also of big interest in the coming week will be Apple Inc. (AAPL) , Netflix Inc. (NFLX), and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) to better gauge the resiliency of the U.S. consumer.

Apple ahead

Apple is of particular interest after its recent slide. The stock last week fell through $400 a share, down more than 44% from its all-time high of $705.07 in late September.

The iPhone maker is expected to report fiscal second-quarter earnings of $10.03 a share on revenue of $42.45 billion, according to analysts polled by FactSet. To underscore the importance of Apple, earnings for the tech sector are expected to fall 4% this season. They would grow 0.2% excluding Apple, according to Butters.

See 10 tech earnings you can't afford to miss.

"Everyone's waiting with bated breath to see if they can change the slide," said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott.

But even more key in the coming week will be earnings from Dow component Caterpillar, he said.

"They'll serve as a litmus test particularly with their exposure to China," Luschini said. In the past week, China's economy grew by 7.7% in the first quarter, short of the 8% expected from economists. That data, combined with industrial output that showed a slowdown, sent commodities and stocks into a tailspin Monday.

No one company will likely stand out as a "smoking gun" that sums up corporate performance this season, said Phil Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors.

"On balance, our expectations were very low," said Orlando, noting that negative earnings pre-announcements going into this season were at multi-year highs and that year-over year expectations were essentially flat.

"Management did a good job of lowering the expectations bar, and management has done a good job of lowering them for the second quarter," Orlando said.

Other earnings releases of note in the coming week will be Hasbro Inc. (HAS) and Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN) on Monday, Amgen Inc. (AMGN) and Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) on Tuesday, Yum Brands Inc. (YUM) and Whirlpool Corp. (WHR) on Wednesday, and Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) and Colgate-Palmolive Co. (CL) on Thursday.

Economy: Watch durables

But with earnings susceptible to the game of lowered expectations, what's going to be of more import to the markets is better economic data, Luschini said. Economic benchmarks, from manufacturing in the New York region to leading economic indicators, fell short of expectations in the past week.

On Wednesday, keep an eye on March durable goods orders, he said. Analysts surveyed by MarketWatch.