Are you ready for the next round of earnings reports? It's going to be pretty ugly. It'd be nice to think that the potential bad news--and analysts have grown more cautious as earnings dates approach--has been priced in already. But you just don't now. The environment in which big banks and brokerages will report is combustible, to say the least. Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan Chase will kick off on Thursday. Citi will follow on Friday. Bank of America will report on Monday, followed by Wachovia on Tuesday. The size of writedowns will be important. Write-down estimates have been climbing steadily higher, but they might be even worse now than expected. Few are optimistic.

For more:
- here's a CNNmoney article

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