Coffee beans, soybeans, and cool beans will play a part in the week ahead.

Monday
Do red rectangular envelopes make you tingle? Do you snicker as you drive past blue-and-gold DVD rental stores because you know that there's a new release waiting in your mailbox? If so, you may be one of the more than 3 million giddy Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) subscribers. You may also be one of the recently happy shareholders, eager to hear about the company's latest quarter come Monday. The stock has risen by better than 80% since bottoming out back in April. At the time, the company was weighed down by concerns that included rental price wars and the fear of Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) entering the market.

Things are feeling a little cheerier these days. Yes, Amazon may still want a nibble. No, Netflix still doesn't have the pricing flexibility to dictate its own terms. However, a lot of good things have happened with the company lately, like initiatives to sell pre-owned titles online, ramping up its advertising possibilities, and an ambitious video-on-demand venture.

Tuesday
The future once looked as bright for Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:SUNW) as its solar namesake. As the 1990s spawned a connectivity revolution, Sun was there as the leader in UNIX-based servers. That promised greatness. Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out that way. The stock has been trading in the single digits for more than three years now, and that's with a huge cash-rich balance sheet and the widespread popularity of the company's Java Web-based language.

Shareholders are expecting Sun to barely break even when it reports on Tuesday. That's likely to be the result of ample interest income trickling in from the $3.1 billion that the company is holding in cash and short-term investments. So go ahead and break out into your Annie costume on Monday and belt out, "The Sun will come out tomorrow." It will. Just don't expect it to shine.

Wednesday
What did Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) do that Sun Microsystems couldn't? It made a fortune with java. Who knows? Maybe Sun can sell its Java.com domain to Starbucks and really cash in on the coffee bean craze. For now, we'll let Starbucks stick to the overpriced bean brews and breezy baristas. Hey, those are the java servers that are really moving these days anyway, right?

Starbucks should have another good quarter to report on come Wednesday. Last month's same-store sales were up 7%. That's impressive on its own, but more so when stacked on top of the 10% gain in comps that Starbucks mustered in June of 2003 and again in 2004. You can work the exponential math of a company that continues to grow its unit base as the individual stores perform better and better.

Thursday
When XM Satellite Radio (NASDAQ:XMSR) speaks, it does so in 150 voices at the same time. That's how many different digital radio channels XM serves up to its subscribers for $12.95 a month. The company is on a tear, and that's not hype. XM closed the June quarter with 4.4 million subscribers, and on Thursday, we will get to see how the numbers played out during the period.

Our latest Dueling Fools segment features the bull and bear side of XM rival Sirius (NASDAQ:SIRI), though calling them rivals may not be quite accurate. They control a duopoly in domestic satellite radio, and as the pie grows, there will certainly be enough for both to share.

Friday
Living off the fat of the land is no hollow cliche for Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE:ADM). The agricultural titan is one of the world's leading processors of farmland foodstuffs like corn, wheat, and soybeans. The conglomerate's latest harvest? It will be wrapping up the week with its latest quarterly report. The company knows how to grow things. It also knows how to grow, period. Revenues rose by 18% last year to hit $36 billion. That's impressive for a company as big as ADM. Come to think of it, that would be impressive even for a small company.

Want to learn more about the companies waiting to report earnings this week? Check out:

Until next week, I remain,

Rick Munarriz

Netflix and Amazon are selections of the Motley Fool Stock Advisor newsletter service.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz thinks that red rectangles are cool -- as long as they don't result in paper cuts. He does own shares in Netflix. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early. The Fool has a disclosure policy .