Earnings season is in full swing, and this week will bring quarterly results from Amazon.com (AMZN), DeVry (DV), Freeport McMoRan (FCX), Hershey (HSY), Kimberley-Clark (KMB), Starbucks (SBUX), Union Pacific (UNP) and United Technologies (UTX), all of which, according to analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, are expected to post double-digit earnings growth from the same period of last year (when most stocks were at their recessionary lows).

After strong showings last week by Google (GOOG), Intel (INTC) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM), the earnings spotlight again will be on the tech and financial sectors. So, let's take a closer look at what's expected from impending results from Apple (AAPL), International Business Machines (IBM) and Western Digital (WDC), as well as Goldman Sachs (GS), American Express (AXP) and Morgan Stanley (MS).

3M Company (MMM) benefited from a comment from brokerage Morgan Stanley. The brokerage house believes that 3M will rally after an optimistic forecast from Danaher (DHR), which operates in many of the same markets as 3M. The broker believes that the stock will enjoy a nice 30-day run thanks to DHR's forecast.

The thing is, if the stock continues the performance it started in early 2009 -- we shouldn't need a brokerage to tell us that the stock will do well during the next 30 days. Shares of 3M have advanced along the double-barreled support of its 10- and 20-month trendlines. The last time the equity finished a week below both of these trendlines was more than a year ago.

Thanks to a trillion dollars in credit losses write-downs on mortgage-related securities in 2007 and 2008, financial companies around the world had a lot of capital to recapture. So, in the first half of 2009, they issued stock. More than half the new shares to come out worldwide in those six months were issued by banks and brokers. All this stock, of course, translated to fees for investment banks. In a strange way, consequently, the financial industry healed itself.

According to Bloomberg, investment banking fees surged 13% in 2009, from $53.1 billion to $59.8 billion. This is still far short of the $86.9 billion record set in 2007, but it's at least a step in the right direction. Even with the surge of bank and broker shares issued in the first two quarters last year, total activity was still lower than in 2008.

New York State comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has issued the numbers for Wall Street bonuses in 2009. The total was $20.3 billion, up 17% from the previous year.

Wall Street profits totaled an unprecedented $55 billion in 2009. The average bonus was $123,850 dollars.

The securities business is highly competitive, probably the most competitive. The pressure to secure big clients and to bring the greatest trading profits is enormous.

Right now, Goldman Sachs (GS) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) lead the industry in trading. Goldman has high-speed trading, which generates the largest profits per trade on Wall Street. Naturally, clients are attracted to Goldman because they can give them the best executions and generate the biggest profits in their managed accounts.

Banks are the kink between the financial markets and the Main Street economy. They are also the lubricant -- when they are lending -- of a growing economy.

Using time-honored but now discarded accounting standards, U.S. banks, as a group, are insolvent. They are hoarding cash because deep in the recesses of little offices, they know they will be exposed as insolvent if they have to dump toxic assets on the market. They are also looking at reduced activity due to the economy and new taxes and regulations, and therefore lower profits. And when the Fed raises interest rates, their spreads will contract, also hitting profits.

The widely anticipated IPO for Tesla Motors is finally here. Based in Silicon Valley, the company designs and manufactures high-performance, fully electric cars. The investors include the co-founders of Google (GOOG), Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and the founder is Elon Musk, who helped create PayPal.

The company's first car, which came on the market in 2008, is the Tesla Roadster. It can go from zero to 60 MHP in 3.9 seconds -- without any tailpipe emissions. On a single charge, the car can also go 236 miles. However, the price tag comes to a hefty $109,000.

While we wait for details on the president's plan to break up the banks, I wonder why the banks can't decide to break themselves up?

Wouldn't it be so much better to break up themselves than wait for President Obama to do it for them? Investment banks specialize in mergers and acquisitions and the converse spin-offs. Mergers and acquisitions are big business for Wall Street and they happen all the time. In fact, that's how many of the banks got so big.

Banks have seen a hectic couple of days' of trading, thanks to a bevy of news. I thought it may be good to take a look at some earnings results from a few of the banks, and what it could mean for the economy going forward.

First, let's look at the earnings:

• JPMorgan Chase (JPM): earnings of 74 cents per share; expectations for 60 cents per share
• Citigroup (C): a loss of six cents per share; expectations for a loss of 33 cents per share
• Goldman Sachs (GS): earnings of $8.20 per share; expectations for earnings of $5.20

One of the true icons of finance, Goldman Sachs Group (GS), issued its Q4 report this morning. The stock has been weak off the numbers; at the time of this writing, shares were down well over 5%, and volume was very active. Looking through the press release, I didn't come away as bearish as the market. Then again, the session as a whole was rather choppy, so perhaps overall sentiment was exerting an influence. Still, a 5% sell-off is notable.

Let's look at some highlights. For the fourth quarter, Goldman, whose colleagues include JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Morgan Stanley (MS), made $8.20 per share. Last year at this time, the company reported a loss of $4.97 per share. Besides improving year-over-year, per-share profit increased over 50% on a sequential basis as well. According to Earnings.com, $5.20 was the number to beat.

Analyst Upgrades

• FBR Capital upgraded Wells Fargo (WFC) to market perform from underperform and raised its target on shares to $26 from $21 following the company's better-than-expected quarter.
• Deutsche Bank upgraded Starbucks (SBUX) to buy from hold following the company's better-than-expected Q1 results. The firm raised its target price on shares to $30 from $19.
• UBS upgraded Dreamworks (DWA) to buy from neutral, citing upside from its upcoming film releases. The firm raised its target to $50 from $35.
• Colgate (CL) was upgraded to conviction buy from buy at Goldman.
• F5 Networks (FFIV) was upgraded to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• Applied Industrial (AIT) was upgraded to overweight from equal weight at Stephens.

Morgan Stanley (MS), one of the world's top investment banks, is scheduled to discuss its fourth-quarter 2009 financial results in a conference call Wednesday, Jan. 20, at 11:00 AM (ET), which will include CEO James Gorman. You can catch the live webcast of the call on the company's website.

During the three months that ended in December, the New York-based firm launched its Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management initiative, saw management changes and declared a quarterly dividend. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are looking for Morgan Stanley to report earnings of $0.36 per share, compared to loss of $2.34 per share a year ago and earnings of $0.27 in the third quarter. Fourth-quarter revenue is expected to total $7.8 billion.

Last week, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) led off the coming parade of earnings from the big banks when it reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter and full-year earnings, though its revenue fell short of estimates.

Plenty more earnings from the financial sector are due out this week. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters anticipate fourth-quarter earnings growth from American Express Co. (AXP), Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (BK), Hudson City Bancorp Inc. (HCBK), SLM Corp. (SLM) and US Bancorp (USB).

Analyst Upgrades

• Baird upgraded Intel (INTC) to outperform from neutral and has a $26 target on the stock. The firm's checks indicate tier-one PC OEMs have raised their 1H10 procurement forecasts, which could lead to Intel outperformance.
• Citigroup upgraded UnitedHealth (UNH) to buy from hold on expectations the company will benefit from a sector rotation into Managed Care in 2010. The firm raised its price target on shares to $39 from $30.
• UBS upgraded Morgan Stanley (MS) to buy from neutral based on strong capital and liquidity positions, building investment banking pipelines, and expectations for a turn in EPS/ROE, among other reasons.
• Deutsche Bank upgraded the U.S. Refining group as it believes demand is improving and margins could expand in 2010. The firm raised its rating on Sunoco (SUN) to hold from sell and its target on shares to $25 from $18, and upgraded Tesoro (TSO) and Frontier Oil (FTO) to buy from hold.
• Boeing (BA) was raised to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.
• Wynn Resorts (WYNN) was upgraded at UBS to buy from neutral.
• Investors Bancorp (ISBC) was upgraded to buy from neutral at Janney Montgomery.

Is this the first time you've heard about the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission? Probably. It seems that Treasury Secretary Geithner organized the commission to investigate what went wrong during the financial crisis of 2008! That's right 2008! Can you imagine -- the public has been clamoring for answers as to what happened during the meltdown, and now a year later they decided to open an investigation.

The Commission was created by Congress to examine the causes of the collapse that roiled global markets and led to a $700 billion U.S. bailout of the nation's banks.