Putting all the tumult in the UK to one side for a moment, markets are likely to be driven by US earnings over the next few weeks so investors should make a note in their diary of when major US companies are reporting.

The third-quarter earnings season has actually already started with results from major banks such as Citigroup (C:NYSE), JPMorgan Chase (JPM:NYSE) and Wells Fargo (WFC:NYSE), and so far the message seems to be the US economy is ‘resilient’ and consumers are coping with inflation.

However, despite their upbeat tone, it is worth noting the banks are rebuilding their reserves in case there is a rise in bad loans down the line.

As Shares went to press, earnings were due from consumer health giants Johnson & Johnson (JNJ:NYSE) and Procter & Gamble (PG:NYSE) as well as technology firm IBM (IBM:NYSE), streaming provider Netflix (NFLX:NASDAQ) and electric vehicle-maker Tesla (TSLA).

The floodgates really open next week though, with reports from dozens of major consumer, healthcare, industrial and technology stocks.

In the lead-up to earnings season there was concern companies might miss forecasts, but analysts have cut their estimates sharply in recent weeks and EPS (earnings per share) growth for the S&P 500 index is now seen at just 2% this quarter.

That represents a very low bar for companies to beat, so if they are feeling the strain from a slowing economy and higher interest rates it may not show up until the next quarter or the one after.

In terms of relevance, Alphabet (GOOD:NASDAQ), Amazon (AMZN:NASDAQ), Apple (AAPL:NASDAQ) and Microsoft (MSFT:NASDAQ) are likely to have the biggest impact – be it positive or negative – on market sentiment.

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