This week, corporate bellwethers like Alcoa, Google, JPMorgan Chase and Intel are scheduled to report second-quarter results. While earnings will vary by company and industry, economists say that, taken together, the reports will point to some bright spots for the economy, as well as to some enduring obstacles.

Since profits plunged in late 2008, along with the economy, earnings have been increasing fairly steadily for many companies, partly because they have been coming off such a low base.

For the second quarter, earnings per share for companies whose stocks are included in the Standard and Poor’s 500-stock index are expected to have expanded 25 to 30 percent from the same period a year earlier. If the results beat analysts’ expectations, they could add fuel to the nascent rally in the stock market, bolster the pace of the economic recovery and possibly hint at what many Americans hope for the most: a return to hiring.

But analysts say they also believe that now, perhaps more than at any other time since 2008, the numbers will be only part of the story. Many investors will comb the results for clues about where corporate executives think their businesses, and by extension, the broader economy, will go from here.

How will companies weather the expiration of the federal stimulus program and tax cuts? How will they deal with the running financial crisis in Europe? What about exports and the looming midterm elections?