Speaking of earnings, analysts are expecting YHOO to report a quarterly profit of 8 cents per share, down from 11 cents per share in the year-ago period. Sales for the first quarter are forecast at $1.21 billion, according to Thomson First Call.

Speculative investors are harboring high hopes for the tech stock's upcoming date in the earnings spotlight. During the past 10 days, traders on the International Securities Exchange (ISE) have bought to open 5.53 calls for every put on YHOO, revealing a distinct bias toward bullish bets.

In the May series of options -- which will assume front-month status next Monday -- peak call open interest of 19,709 contracts rests at the 15 strike. This accumulation of out-of-the-money options is located in territory that YHOO hasn't explored since last October. In fact, the stock is currently struggling to topple the $14 level, which hasn't been surmounted on a weekly closing basis since Oct. 3.

Currently, the shares remain perched atop newfound support from their 10-week and 20-week moving averages. These trendlines have underlined the equity's progress since early February, helping propel YHOO to a year-to-date gain of 15.3%.

It should be interesting to see if these technical support levels hold after next Tuesday's earnings report. In addition to the profit and revenue numbers, there will no doubt be additional news for investors to digest -- such as the prospect of fresh job cuts, as well as a possible update on the status of a search deal with Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). News on the latter hot-button issue -- or the lack thereof -- could prove to be the true catalyst behind YHOO's post-report price action.

Elizabeth Harrow is an analyst and financial writer in the research department at Schaeffer's Investment Research. She is featured in the video series Schaeffer's Daily Q&A on SchaeffersResearch.com.