Blue-chip shareholders will face an indifferent company reporting season in February with BHP and Rio Tinto weathering the commodities storm and only Commonwealth Bank presenting among the big four banks.
Westpac, ANZ and National Australia Bank, unlike Commonwealth Bank, have a September year end.
For BHP and Rio, the focus would be very much on cost reduction, said Morgan Stanley's head of investment strategy Malcolm Wood.
"What people are looking for there is what they can do on the cost side, what can they do to trim capital expenditure," Mr Wood said.
"The way the market reacted to Fortescue on Thursday would suggest if you make good progress on that, you can positively surprise."
Commonwealth Bank, currently trading above $89, would be "pretty solid", Mr Wood said. "Our analyst is of the view that a lot of good news is priced into Commonwealth Bank now. It's certainly trading at a ritzy premium to the others. Expectations are pretty high at this point and that's reflected in the share price."
Woolworths shareholders should brace for the impact from Aldi, Mr Wood said. Wesfarmers, though, was performing better. "We think the Bunnings business has been performing very strongly and showing really good momentum in terms of sales. We'd be looking for a solid result from Wesfarmers and a more challenging outlook from Woolies."
Telstra would produce a "fairly solid" report, he said. "Lots of people are buying iPhones so we think that's a bit of kick for the telcos. We think Telstra's still gaining market share in the mobile business although that's probably starting to level out a bit."
Credit Suisse analyst Damien Boey said blue-chip shareholders should not expect any major surprises. "I wouldn't say earnings season is irrelevant but a lot of the anticipated upgrades, downgrades and all of that have already been priced into the stocks. The resources stocks have been taking a bath and the banks have gone from strength to strength."
The fate of resources companies like BHP and Rio was being determined by overseas macroeconomic policy events like interest rate settings in the United States and Europe, he said.
"The guidance statements will be fairly murky from the resources companies. There's not much visibility because it's all dependent on near-term policy moves [from the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank].
"For BHP and Rio, people are looking for signs of cutting back capital expenditure because that's one of the things they can control in this very uncertain environment."
Commonwealth Bank shareholders would be looking for guidance on margin sustainability - interest margins and bad debt levels, he said.
Shareholders would also want to know how the bank plans to react to the findings of the Murray inquiry.
"One of the key ways that they're thinking of providing for that sort of change is not increasing net dividends any more."
Mr Boey said he did not expect to much upside from Telstra. "There's a lot of operational constraints on them continuing to deliver but there's potential for them to increase their dividends still. That's what people are going to be most focused on."
Woolworths and Wesfarmers "are fighting margin squeeze but when push comes to shove investors know where to find defensiveness in this market when they need it".
Tim Carleton, portfolio manager with Auscap Asset Management, said Woolworths and Wesfarmers shareholders would be focused on the impact that Aldi and Costco were having. "With Woolies there'll also be focus on how much Masters continues to suck out of the business and what the plan is there.
"With BHP and Rio it will be commentary on commodity prices and understanding on how much cost they'll be able to strip out of the business given they've already been quite aggressive on the cost-cutting front over the last six-to-12 months. Fortescue, for example, exceeded market expectations on their ability to take costs out of the business."
As for Telstra, "people aren't expecting a lot of surprises. The expectation will be for continuing growth in market share. I don't think the market has any huge expectations one way or the other for Telstra. It should be a reasonable result."
And the same for Commonwealth Bank: "people have the view that it is the best bank and so it's priced accordingly".
Commonwealth Bank reports on February 11, Telstra on February 12 and Rio Tinto on February 13. Wesfarmers reports on February 19, BHP on February 24 and Woolworths on February 27.
