Here are some highlights from last week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) higher Q3 earnings topped expectations but revenue was in line.
• Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) posted better-than-expected Q3 results, but shares sold off.
• Allegheny Technologies Inc. (NYSE: ATI) was downgraded on concerns about its Q4 guidance.
• Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) shares fell after it posted a deeper-than-expected quarterly loss.
• Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) fell victim to profit taking despite reporting better-than-expected earnings.
• CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) better-than-expected Q3 earnings sent shares higher, despite a decline in revenue.

Plenty of companies are reporting earnings this Wednesday morning, one of which is Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT).

The health-care giant reported third-quarter earnings of 95 cents per share, far better than last year's 69 cents per share. Taking items out of the equation, Abbott would have earned 92 cents per share, which is two cents better than the consensus estimate. Quarterly revenue matched the consensus estimate for $7.76 billion.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT), the broad-based health care company that produces both Humira and Similac, is scheduled to discuss its third quarter 2009 financial results in a conference call Wednesday at 9:00 AM ET. You can catch the live webcast on the company's website.

During the three months that ended in September, Abbott Labs announced acquisitions of Visiogen, Evalve, and Solvay pharmaceuticals, as well as declared its 343rd consecutive quarterly dividend. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect this suburban Chicago company to report that earnings rose 12.2% from a year ago to $0.90 per share. Sales for the quarter are expected to be 3.3% higher to $7.8 billion.

"Being contrarians, we are always looking for laggard stocks with the potential to rebound," says turnaround expert George Putnam.

In his The Turnaround Letter, the advisor reviews four medical and pharmaceutical stocks that have been among the worst performers in the S&P 100 since the market bottom. Despite their poor performance, he thinks they may be due for a rebound.

"We think that investors who got left behind by the first leg of the market rally are struggling to catch up.

Goldman Sachs upgraded the banking sector last week, and this coming week we'll get a chance to see whether Goldman and other big banks reporting third quarter results will live up to the expectations of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

New York-based Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) looks set to be this week's earnings game winner. Analysts expect this dividend-paying company to report a third-quarter profit of $4.24 per share, which is 57.3% higher than in the same period of last year. Revenue for the period that ended in September is expected to be $11.0 billion. So far, the full-year forecast is for $17.74 per share on $44.6 billion.

Traders had on their rally caps today, and the DJIA moved as high as 9,823 as it renewed its ascent toward 10,000. The index moved back down a bit at the end of the day as traders got lazy during a session in which most of the news came before the bell.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) and Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX) both announced deals today that pumped some air into the M&A business. Financial shares are mostly moving higher because increased M&A activity generally means more fees for financial services companies. Trading volume was light, mostly due to the Yom Kippur holiday today.

Today's numbers:

Dow 9,789.44 +124.25 (1.29%)
S&P 500 1,062.88 +18.50 (1.77%)
Nasdaq 2,130.74 +39.82 (1.90%)

In her The MoneyPaper, editor Vita Nelson looks to stocks offering dividend reinvestment plans. Here, she highlights Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) as a featured holding in her model portfolio.

"Abbott is a diversified, multinational, health care firm.The shares have not responded to the recent stock market rallies in part due to the defensive nature of health care stocks.

"Uncertainty regarding health care reform is also a factor in the static share price of recent months. ABT shares are now trading below 11 times 2010 earnings estimates, compared with about 15 for the S&P 500.

One of the complaints we often hear is that the private insurance companies are gouging customers, second guessing doctors, and cutting corners at every turn to increase profit margins. A great deal of this is true and I would not debate that this dilutes the quality of health care in the United States.

Is the corollary that the government intends to run a health care program that does not make a profit?

That is a very probable outcome. If that is the case then how is it possible that the government will be able to fund something that is a money loser from the get go?

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says health care has never been this cheap relative to the market in its history.

Health care's not done rallying. As President Obama prepared himself for claiming a great political victory, we are all recognizing that the single-payer, socialized medicine covering cradle-to-grave, 100% paid for by the rich, the fear that left all things health care in the P/E dustbin, is dead. That's not going to happen.

That leaves us with the biggest bargains the market has to offer.

Health care has never been this lowly valued relative to the market in its history. Remember, 98% of the time it trades at a meaningful premium. I think that many believe some of these moves (like the Celgene (NASDAQ: CELG) (Cramer's Take) move) is because of gigantic new drug finds. In fact, I think they just got too cheap and the only thing really meaningful about the Celgene rally came because one of its Revlimid studies was stopped for good results, actually a predictable event given how well the drug works on many different kinds of cancers.

In recent stories I have highlighted several health care stocks that I think would be strong candidates for small portfolios (Part 1 and Part 2) that would be safe and pay high yields. These include: Johnson and Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Abott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) and Novartis AG ADS (NYSE: NVS). I have been thinking about these companies and how others will fare in the health care debate.

While Washington debates the merits of various health care bills, the health care companies lobby to influence the outcome. Businesses and employees are resistant to taxing current health care benefits but very few people are opposed to taxing those that get big paychecks.

I think we are heading down the wrong path regarding health care "reform" once again. There is no question that most people want to improve health care in many respects, including but not limited to, the quality, cost, and delivery, but the devil is in the details and we may end up no better off than we started except of course with more complexity and greater cost.

The market may be entering a more volatile period or it may just go sideways for a while. The last few weeks the market has been down. Maybe it is because the rapid rise mid-March through mid-June is forcing people to stop and take a breath, or perhaps it is because investors are having second thoughts about whether the "green shoots" Ben Bernanke spoke of in regards to a healing economy were really just weeds.

All in all, I still believe that there is opportunity in this market and I have been trying to point out how investors can get in with as little risk as possible, while being rewarded for their patience now, and when a recovery ensues ---- whenever that is. To this end, two weeks ago I posted Serious Money: Five high-yield, safe, diversified stocks and decided to follow up with another five I think will produce similar results.

Yesterday, pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) said that its patent infringement lawsuit against Abbott Labs (ABT) was successful, with Abbott ordered to pay $1.67 billion because its best-selling drug, Humira, too closely resembles J&J's Remicade. The drugs are intended to treat rheumatoid arthritis by blocking a substance known as TNF, which causes inflammation. According to the Arthritis Foundation, 1.3 million Americans suffer from rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic disease. Abbott Labs sponsors the group's programs specifically related to rheumatoid arthritis.

The verdict leaves Abbott stock in a tenuous position. The healthcare sector has been in the crosshairs lately as concerns about costly medical reform swirl, with the SPDR S&P Pharmaceuticals (XPH) ETF down slightly year-to-date, compared to the nearly 5% gain on the S&P 500. Abbott Labs has underperformed both comparables, and is down 10% year-to-date.

"Stocks are likely in a new downtrend," says Michael Ashbaugh. In Marketwatch's The Technical Indicator, he looks at the S&P's prospects and some drug stocks set to buck the trend.

"The S&P 500 has violated its major moving averages in the closely tracked 900 area. The recent downturn was convincingly bearish, placing the burden on market bulls to reassert the uptrend.

"After finding resistance in the 923 area, the S&P sold off sharply, edging back under its 200-day moving average, which currently holds at 900 and now marks resistance. This is bearish price action.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer suggests watching certain staples for hints that the flight to riskier plays is losing steam.

Will the endless "beta" trade out of slow-moving, "safe" drugs and foods and into companies like Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) (Cramer's Take) and Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) (Cramer's Take) ever end?

I think it won't end here, that's for certain, unless your staples stock goes to a 5% yield and the economy's macro data show a further breakdown. If we get some retail sales that are awful and some employment numbers that show a further trashing, then we are going to see a momentary blip up in stocks like Pepsi (NYSE: PEP) (Cramer's Take) and Clorox (NYSE: CLX) (Cramer's Take), but perhaps no more than that.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer is seeing signs of a coming boom, but he's still being cautious here.

If you had to define the early cycle, if you had to outline what stocks should be soaring coming out of a recession into a boom and which ones should be faltering, you would have to say the action in this market in the last month is the quintessential behavioral pattern.

What are the components of the early cycle? First, it's the homebuilders. As is typical coming out of a recession, the stocks precede the bottom of housing. That's exactly what's happening with the lowest permits and highest affordability and best mortgage rates and massive inventory. Everywhere, except on Wall Street reporting, the bottom is bursting out. When you read the lead story in the Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer, and it is all about the thousands of prospective homebuyers heading south to pick up condos and homes for half of what they were worth two years ago -- or even less -- and you know that virtually no one has broken ground in the Sunshine State in a year, you can bet that the bottom's actually behind us. This housing market has wiped out all but the most stable private builders and even the public ones are merging as we know from Pulte (NYSE: PHM) (Cramer's Take) and Centex (NYSE: CTX) (Cramer's Take). So, in the next cycle, you can see some profitability developing year over year even though the new homes don't have much margin because the foreclosed homes next door are going for a song. And don't believe this won't change the dynamic of future foreclosures. In most areas, rent is higher than the interest on mortgages, so you will find that second or third job needed to stay in your home. The incentive structure's radically different than a year ago.