The Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) is scheduled to report its second-quarter earnings results tomorrow morning, and expectations are apparently running rather high. With no other news to account for the move, KO shares have gained nearly 2% today to peg a new 52-week high, their highest level since July 2002. Analysts are also very cheery toward the soft-drink giant with earnings less than 24 hours away. Data from Zacks reveals that the stock has earned five "strong buy" ratings, three "buys," two "holds," and not a single "sell."

From a contrarian perspective, this optimism (or at least complacency) gives pause as it indicates there is little room for a misstep from Coke. The sheer quantity of "buy" ratings means that downgrades are more likely, from a mathematical perspective. And while the shares have rallied to a new five-year high, they remain far from their all-time peak. Additionally, the company continues to deal with fundamental challenges as it employs acquisitions in an attempt to keep ahead of arch-rival PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP).

The consensus expectation for tomorrow's report calls for per-share results of 82 cents, equal to year-ago figures. In the previous quarter, KO managed an upside surprise of 4%, a surprise that boosted the stock notably higher immediately following the report. With bullishness the overwhelming sentiment on both Wall Street and Main Street, it may take more of an upside surprise to launch the stock higher. Coke is scheduled to report its numbers around 8:30 Eastern time.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

A Kansas federal court has ruled that a lawsuit accusing soft drink makers of selling drinks made with ingredients that can form cancer-causing benzen can go forward. The lawsuit asks that makers remove the drinks from stores, change the recipe, and offer refunds to customers who bought them.

Coca Cola Company (NYSE: KO) had been a defendant, but settled earlier this month, offering refunds and reformulating the soda. PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP) said the suit is without merit, and other defendants include Sunny Delight and Rockstar.

Here's what I don't understand: If the drinks really can cause cancer, shouldn't customers be entitled to a little bit more than a refund? It seems bizarre that all that the plaintiffs want is a refund. The soda companies involved have not conceded that their products can cause cancer.

The relatively minor requests (refunds and new formula) make this suit a pretty insignificant risk for shareholders in the companies.

Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE:KO) has been running a television ad recently that features a senior citizen who has somehow gone his whole life without ever tasting a Coke. Just one sip of Coke sends him off on a frantic quest to experience everything he's overlooked during his lifetime. But the most incredible part of that ad may be the notion that someone could have never heard of Coke, let alone not had one. Coke surely ranks right up there with such American icons as baseball and apple pie.

It's not only hard to imagine someone never trying a Coke, but also that there are any unconquered markets left for the world's largest soft-drink company, at least as far as its traditional beverage offerings. That's no doubt why, like Pepsico Inc. (NYSE:PEP) and its other rivals, Coke is focusing so much of its energy these days on alternative beverages: teas, juices, energy drinks, and coffee.

Remember the 90s? Ahh, the 90s, when I was in high school and college and we all believed that (a) bagels and cereal were diet foods and (b) drinking a Diet Coke with your pizza was a good way of cancelling out the calories.

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) has announced that it will be releasing a new calorie-burning soft drink called "Enviga" in November, just in time to balance out your Thanksgiving dinner I suppose. That's right, I said "calorie-burning." It could be that my pizza/diet soda strategy from 1992 could finally actually work!

Enviga uses green tea extract (EGCG, which has nothing to do with an EKG, much though my mind immediately leaps there), caffeine and calcium, and the company says it is actually proven to burn calories. Investors seem cautiously optimistic and have sent the stock up a bit, about 20 cents, since the announcement.

I don't know. First of all: the packaging looks to me like those alcoholic drinks -- totally the wrong association for Coke's target market. Second, I connect calorie-burning with the fen-phen troubles of the late 90s (yep, those darned 90s again). Third, as Sarah Gim from Slashfood points out, Enviga is only "proven" to burn calories in "healthy people with a lean to normal body type" -- those that don't really need to burn any more calories. Sarah, Sarah! Don't you know that customers don't read the small print??

It remains to be seen whether Enviga will crash and burn due to confusing packaging, or it will soon be on the desks of millions of lean-to-normal female high school and college students, who are certain that they're in need of losing just five more pounds. If I know anything about their collective psychology, I'd be betting on option #2.

Coca Cola (KO) and Pepsi Co (PEP), beleaguered lately with a ban on some sales in the northern Indian states of Rajasthan and Punjab due to pesticide levels, have an ally in the U.S. federal government. U.S. Under-Secretary for International Trade, Franklin Lavin, asked India recently to ensure that the two companies are treated no differently than local cola makers on environmental issues. The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in India has said drinks from these manufacturers contain pesticides in amounts higher than allowed by law.

Arjun Swarup at the Indian Economy Blog [via India Uncut] has a well-documented and detailed overview of the issues involved, and argues that many products that Indians consume in greater quantities than colas -- such as eggs, milk, and fruit -- are much higher in trace amounts of pesticides. Arjun maintains the CSE could spend it time better in those areas.