All eyes on Wall Street earnings

The conventional wisdom on the top banks is that while the credit crunch will eat away at third-quarter earnings, out-and-out disasters will likely be averted.  Many analysts have lowered their earnings estimates for the big guns. But investment bank earnings are hard to call. The most anxiety surrounds Bear Stearns for obvious reasons. That said, the recent hedge fund implosions will likely be more profound for fund investors than Bear itself. According to MarketWatch, rumor are rife that Lehman did well in fixed-income trading and Goldman Sachs did fine in equities. But no one will really know until next week. Lehman kicks things of on Monday. Morgan Stanley, Bear Stearns and Goldman Sachs will follow suit through the week.  

For more:
- here's the MarketWatch preview