We may have seen less than a third of the fourth quarter earnings reports thus far, but that’s enough to give us a good sense of how the rest of this reporting season will likely turn out. The bottom-line verdict is that it’s not as bad as many of us suspected.

Leaving aside earnings growth, which is non-existent, on most other metrics the fourth quarter reporting season is quite good. Not only are the ratio and magnitude of surprises better than the previous quarter and comparable to the last many, but the tone of management guidance has also been on the reassuring side.

But it’s premature to close the books on the Q4 reporting as more than two-thirds of the earnings reports have still to come. This week promises to be the busiest thus far, with 413 companies coming out with quarterly results, including 105 S&P 500 companies. With Q4 earnings results from 147 S&P 500 companies already out, as of Friday January 25, we will cross the halfway mark by the end of this week.

Last week was dominated by Tech, but this week has everything – from Amazon (AMZN) and Facebook (FB) to Exxon (XOM), Caterpillar (CAT) and Boeing (BA). By the end of the week, we will have seen Q4 earnings results from 65.2% of the total market cap of the S&P 500.

Total earnings for the reports that have come out (147 of S&P 500 companies as of Friday, January 25th) are up +0.9% from the same period last year, with 63.9% of the companies beating expectations with the median earnings surprise of +2.7%. Performance on the revenue front is a lot better, with total revenues up 5.1%, 59.2% of the companies coming ahead of revenue expectations and a median revenue surprise of +0.5%.

In terms of the ‘beat ratio’ and median surprise, the Q4 thus far is better than what this same group of companies did in the third quarter, and in line with the average for the last four quarters.

The earnings growth of +0.9% for the 147 companies is better than what these same companies did in the third quarter, but is sharply lower compared to the preceding several quarters. The Technology sector is a major contributor to the lack of earnings growth for the broader index. Tech sector earnings are tracking +0.6% for the companies that have reported and this growth pace is unlikely to change much in the coming days since the Tech companies that have reported already account for almost 75% of the sector’s total earnings.

Strong growth in Finance (+28.7%) is keeping the aggregate growth in the positive territory. Excluding Finance, total earnings for the reports that are out would be down -5.9% from the same period last year – a weaker performance relative to the third quarter.

Total earnings for the 353 S&P 500 companies that are still awaited (of which 105 will come out this week alone) are expected to be down -1.7%, while total revenues are expected to be down -3.8%. The composite growth rate for Q4, where we combine the reports that have come out with those still to come, is +0.4% for earnings and -0.6% for total revenues. These would be modestly better than the previous quarter, but not in any material sense.

In fact, earnings growth was essentially flat in the last two quarters of 2012. Looking ahead, total earnings are expected to be down -2.2% in the first quarter, up +4.4% in the second quarter, up +7.4% in the third quarter and up +16.1% in the fourth quarter of 2013.

(For a detailed look on how the fourth quarter earnings season has fared thus far, please check out our weekly Earnings Trends report.)

We have a busy calendar on the economic front as well, with the January non-farm payroll and ISM reports coming out on Friday and the first read on Q4 GDP on Wednesday. Other major reports include Durable Goods orders, ADP, Personal Income & Outlays and the FOMC meeting.

Monday - 1/28

• We have the December Durable Goods orders report coming out in the morning, with expectations of +2.5% gain after the +0.8% increase in November.
• The key earnings reports include Caterpillar (CAT) in the morning and Yahoo (YHOO) after the close.
• Zacks ESP, our proprietary leading indicator of earnings surprises, is showing Yahoo coming out with an earnings beat.

Tuesday - 1/29

• We will get the November Case-Shiller Home Price Index and the January Consumer Confidence data.
• We have a busy day on the earnings front, with Ford (F), Pfizer (PFE), Eli Lilly (LLY) and International Paper (IP) reporting in the morning, and Amazon (AMZN) reporting after the close.
• Zacks ESP is showing Ford and Amazon coming out with earnings beats.

Wednesday - 1/30

• We have a busy day on the economic calendar, as the first read on Q4 GDP and the January ADP jobs reports come out in the morning. We will get the Fed statement in the afternoon at the end of the FOMC meeting. The GDP growth rate is expected to come down to +1% from the third quarter’s +3.1% pace, while the ADP report is expected to show private sector of jobs of 165K in January, after December’s 215K reading.
• Boeing (BA), ConocoPhillips (COP) and Marathon (MRO) are the key reports in the morning, while Facebook (FB) and Qualcomm (QCOM) report after the close.
• Boeing may have its hands full with embarrassing problems with the Dreamliner, but Zacks ESP is showing it coming out with a positive surprise. Facebook also appears on track to beat earnings expectations.

Thursday - 1/31

• In addition to weekly Jobless Claims, we will get the December Personal Income & Outlays and Chicago PMI readings. We have now had two weeks of Jobless Claims data in the 230K vicinity; it will be interesting if we get confirmation of that in this Jobs week.
• Pulte Group (PHM), Sherwin Williams (SHW), Dow Chemical (DOW) and Hershey (HSY) report in the morning, while Eastman Chemical (EMN) will report after the close.

Friday - 2/1

• We will get the January non-farm payroll numbers in the morning, with expectations of 158K jobs compared to the 155K tally in December.
• Other major economic releases today include the January Manufacturing ISM Index (expected to be essentially unchanged from December’s 50.7 level), December Construction Spending (up +0.7% vs. down -0.3% in November) and the final Michigan Sentiment Survey.
• Exxon (XOM), Chevron (CVX), Mattel (MAT) and Tyson Foods (TSN) are the major reports today, all in the morning.

Here is a list of the 413 companies reporting this week, including 105 S&P 500 members: