Solar, sites, and stores will color in the week that lies ahead.

Monday
The trading week kicks off with priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN). The online travel portal has routinely landed ahead of Wall Street's profit targets, so it's tempting to consider analysts' expected $1.66 a share just the floor of possibilities. However, the company did earn $1.09 a share a year ago, so the growth assumptions are already pretty lofty. Still, until the company is proven fallible, the best bet is for another priceline.com victory lap.

Tuesday
JA Solar (Nasdaq: JASO) and SunPower (Nasdaq: SPWRA) share their quarterly financials. Solar energy has been a volatile sector in recent years, so it's encouraging to see the market banking on solid earnings improvement from both companies this time around.

Wednesday
Helen of Troy (Nasdaq: HELE) gets all dolled up. Wall Street sees the beauty-supply specialist earning $0.49 a share for its latest quarter, 36% ahead of where it was a year ago.

Thursday
Tech bellwethers NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA) and CA (NYSE: CA) check in. Both companies are projected to post higher earnings this time around.

Friday
The trading week usually ends quietly, but J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) steps up as the last of many retailers posting their quarterly results. Analysts are upbeat here. They see earnings at the department store chain more than doubling to $0.24 a share.

Until next week, I remain,

Rick Munarriz