Monday
The new trading week begins with a trip halfway around the world, to China's Ctrip.com (NASDAQ:CTRP). China's leading online travel site has been slowed lately. After huge growth spurts in the past, Wall Street is looking for Ctrip's third-quarter earnings to come in at just $0.22 a share, after a $0.21-per-share profit a year ago.

Don't let that news bring you down, though. Ctrip has easily surpassed analyst expectations in each of the six previous quarters.

Tuesday
Home Depot (NYSE:HD) steps onto the earnings stage, a day after home-improvement superstore rival Lowe's (NYSE:LOW) does. Put the two reports together, and you'll get a great snapshot of the state of hardware retail.

Are cash-strapped consumers still spending money to fix up their homes? Check in on Tuesday for the answers.

Wednesday
Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU) checks in on Wednesday. This isn't a seasonally potent quarter for the company. It isn't late December, when companies buy new installments of the company's small-business accounting program. It isn't mid-April, when copies of its tax-filing software sell briskly. The company historically posts a small loss during the lull, so it's hard to expect anything else.

Thursday
If you could go back a decade, you'd find huge earnings reports out of Gap (NYSE:GPS) and Dell (NASDAQ:DELL). Gap was the specialty retail darling, and Dell's direct-selling model for PCs had the rest of its peers envious. Both companies are struggling these days. Let's see which one is closer to a turnaround on Thursday.

Friday
Let's wrap up the trading week by catching up with ketchup. Analysts see H.J. Heinz (NYSE:HNZ) earning $0.74 a share in its fiscal second quarter, just ahead of the $0.71 that the supermarket-staple provider posted a year ago. If Friday feels too far away, feel free to sing along to the old "Heinz 57" commercials, with Carly Simon belting out "Anticipation."

Until next week, I remain,

Rick Munarriz