NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - After some tumultuous times, U.S. stock markets could be ready to calm down this week as investors focus on a slew of quarterly earnings reports from major companies.

According to market strategists, stock markets are showing signs of stabilizing and establishing a bottom in the short term.

"I think [market's are] showing some signs of bottoming out," Richard McCabe, chief market analyst at Merrill Lynch, told CNNfn's "Market Call"

"Indicators in the background are either very oversold or they're showing a shift to a lot of pessimistic psychology, which contrarily is usually a good sign in terms of indicating a bottom," McCabe said. "And we may take another couple of weeks to complete this bottoming process but I think we'll then see a mid-to-late-summer rally."

The markets took investors on a roller coaster ride last week. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 7.4 percent to end the week at 8,684.53. The Nasdaq composite index finished the week 5.2 percent lower at 1,373.49. And the Standard & Poor's 500 index closed the week at 921.40, with a loss of 6.8 percent.

"After a couple of crazy weeks on both sides we might start to base a little ... and trade in a tight range," said Charles Payne, CEO and chief strategist at Wall Street Strategies. "I don't know if we'll have these triple-digit swings, but we could see this type of pattern of up, down, up, down, red, green, red, green."

There's no doubt that investors will be looking at corporate balance sheets this week, with a calendar full of heavyweights reporting earnings, or lack thereof.

"We start getting into earnings and at least theoretically that's going to drive the market," said Timothy Ghriskey, president of Ghriskey Capital Partners.

"There were very few preannouncements, which means [earnings] are going to come in line or better than expected," Ghriskey said. "There a fair chance that the market really stabilizes, and we might even see an up week."

There's a little breathing room for Monday's trading with a few financial services companies scheduled, but the earnings action heats up before the bell on Tuesday when Caterpillar (CAT: Research, Estimates), General Motors (GM: Research, Estimates), Merrill Lynch (MER: Research, Estimates) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ: Research, Estimates) announce results.

After the bell, results come in from semiconductor bellwether Intel (INTC: Research, Estimates), Motorola (MOT: Research, Estimates) and Apple Computer (AAPL: Research, Estimates).

Wednesday before the bell brings Boeing (BA: Research, Estimates), Citigroup (C: Research, Estimates), Coca-Cola (KO: Research, Estimates), Ford (F: Research, Estimates), Honeywell (HON: Research, Estimates), J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM: Research, Estimates) and Pfizer (PFE: Research, Estimates). After the bell the tech sector sees IBM (IBM: Research, Estimates) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD: Research, Estimates) report.

On Thursday, DaimlerChrysler (DCX: Research, Estimates), International Paper (IP: Research, Estimates), Philip Morris (MO: Research, Estimates), Sprint (FON: Research, Estimates) and US Airways (U: Research, Estimates) weigh in before the bell. After trading, Microsoft (MSFT: Research, Estimates), eBay (EBAY: Research, Estimates), Sun Microsystems (SUNW: Research, Estimates) and Gateway (GTW: Research, Estimates) come in.

And before the bell Friday investors will have results from Merck (MRK: Research, Estimates), PepsiCo (PEP: Research, Estimates) and UAL (UAL: Research, Estimates) to consider.

Ghriskey noted that technology shares still could see a lot of volatility if they miss their revenue numbers, even if the earnings numbers are in line with expectations.

While earnings should dominate the headlines, everyone listens when Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan speaks. On Tuesday, Greenspan gives his semiannual Humphrey-Hawkins testimony on the state of the economy to the Senate and Wednesday to the House.

In other economic news, housing data are expected Wednesday, with the number of housing starts in June expected to fall modestly to 1.68 million in June from 1.733 million in May, according to a survey by Briefing.com.

"Housing is going to be important because we've got a lot of housing companies that are going to start reporting in the last two weeks of the month," Payne said.

The Consumer Price Index for June is scheduled to be released Friday, with economists looking for a 0.1 percent increase in June compared with no change in May, according to Briefing.com.