Spring fever ahead for US earnings

Updated April 19 2014 - 9:08am, first published 7:42am

Earnings season shifts into high gear next week, and with nearly one-third of S&P 500 names set to post results, investors hope the news provides a catalyst to buy stocks and leave the market's recent weakness in the dust.Several behemoths, including Apple, the largest US company by market value, as well as Microsoft, McDonald's and AT&T, are due to report earnings.