As earnings announcements begin pouring in, with some of the big guns preparing their statements this week, investors are wondering just what to expect. McDonald’s, whose revamped coffee line has taken off over the past year, AT&T and Amazon, just to name a few, have at one time or another had some historical sway on market trends.  In all seriousness; never mind the up-and down week of McDonald’s, whose stocks have fluctuated all around the dollar range, or even Amazon, who hit the week’s low on Wednesday after a $9 October rally: ’tis the season for hope.

In fact, “HOPE”—that operative word of the Obama campaign poised for victory in the midst of last year’s crisis—is on the forefront of bullish minds, having been the driving factor behind the upswing in the market following this past March’s abysmal lows on the DOW and S&P.  These people believe, perhaps rightly, that the panic-fueled market lows that seem so long ago were reached because of pervasive worry, and that fears of the scenario that brought the roaring twenties to a screeching halt were unfounded.  The correction, in their minds, was inevitable; as evidenced by the DOW peeking its head over the 10,000 benchmark only a week ago.  Watching the DOW flirt with the 10,100 mark (and close just above it) recently has only served to bolster the confidence of these investors.  Hope, it seems, is definitely on the rise.

Whether or not such optimism is unfounded remains, of course, to be seen.  While PepsiCo reported healthy earnings in early October, other groups reported losses. AMR, RPM, and the influential CitiGroup have all reported losses already, which calls into question the long-term sustainability of the market increase.  Many companies who have already reported healthy, if not robust, earnings are hesitant to predict what the fourth quarter holds, which gives the bears something to lean on as companies begin to work toward a new benchmark.  It seems as though the telltale signs of economic recovery are considerably fragile in spite of the recent upswing, and fourth quarter resurgence is obviously contingent upon factors far more important than not-so-bad third quarter earnings.

It stands to note, however, that many of these third quarter sob stories were couched in pleasant terms. AMD declared that losses were less than expected; CitiGroup, under strict government supervision, seemed to express surprise at the smaller than anticipated losses of the third quarter.  No matter how you cut it, in an economy hampered by worry over an expensive stimulus package, the Drudge-fueled collapse of the dollar, and even the political tension surrounding President Obama as he nears the one-year mark since his election… hope remains the operative force behind the market.  Hope has not weighed down the economy—hope has provided growth opportunities and fueled investment.  The Biblical prophecy that hope will not disappoint us has proven remarkably sound considering the full-fledged panic the market experienced a short year ago.  Hope, it seems, has brought us quite a ways.

The celebrations by investors over the first round of earnings may indeed be coming a little bit early.  That we have too many earnings announcements to look forward to before we can make a qualitative assessment of the future of the market goes without saying.  What does not seem to be in question is the importance of those intangible qualities of investors (yes; those often lampooned for being too quantitative and stingy in their analyses; pessimists and opportunists, the lot) that drive the market to its greatest excesses and most frustrating lows.  As the panic in the first few months of 2009 demonstrated, fear and worry can send the market below even what is reasonable to expect.  It is reasonable to expect, in this light, that whatever the earnings announcements may bring, the possibility exists that investor optimism will equalize the damage.

For that reason, at least, bullish investors can smile for a little longer.Earnings season