What to watch

Earnings season arrives amid Greek crisis

Wall Street, already trying to navigate the twists and turns of the headline-changing Greek debt crisis, must now multitask and cope with the perils and opportunities of the second-quarter earnings reporting season.

The unofficial start of the April-through-June profit season kicks off Wednesday when aluminum maker Alcoa reports its second-quarter results, just one of four stocks in the benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index that report this week. Alcoa is expected to grow earnings by more than 26% vs. the just-ended second quarter.

But that type of double-digit profit growth won’t be forthcoming from the rest of the broad market index. In fact, Wall Street analysts are now forecasting a 3%

contraction in profits after the S&P 500 eked out a 2.2% growth rate in the first quarter.

The earnings slowdown is just another headwind facing a U.S. stock market that is already coping with above-average valuations, fallout from the Greece debt drama and the uncertainty surrounding the timetable for the Federal Reserve’s first interest rate hike since before the 2008 financial crisis.

Retailer Family Dollar, pharmacy chain Walgreens and soft drink and snack seller Pepsico are the other companies that report earnings in coming days.

Despite the low expectations for earnings growth, Wall Street is hoping that companies will again be able to top the lowered bar and give the market and individual stocks a much-needed lift.