With earnings season’s unofficial start next week, the pressure will be on, especially if Friday’s jobs report misses the mark.  The mess in Europe, high unemployment, a lousy housing market — you know the drill — it’s all piling up to put a lid on stocks.  That means the market is likely looking for earnings to help it break out of a two-month long trading range. 

A few big names are on the schedule for the typically slow first week, including Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM). However, we’re looking at Infosys Tech (NASDAQ:INFY), the IT and consulting services firm based in India.  INFY reports before the bell on Wednesday, with analysts expecting a profit of 69 cents a share vs. 65 cents a year ago.

Here’s all we need to know about INFY: the stock has done horribly after recent reports.  The shares have dropped after each of the past five reports, plunging an average of 8% in just one day.  Taking out the huge 19% loss two quarters ago, the average loss is 5.2%.  That’s plenty to make any option trader smile.

The chart shows the stock trading sideways for the past six weeks.  But now it’s running into its declining 50-day moving average, a trendline the stock last closed above on Aug. 1.

The closest competitor for INFY that has posted some recent earnings data is Accenture (NYSE:ACN), which reported a solid quarter last week.  But the stock has traded sideways since then, which is less than encouraging for INFY.

This market is looking for reasons to knock any stock lower.  And it’s been finding plenty of them with INFY in recent quarters.  Look for the pattern to continue.  Buy the Oct. 52.50 put for $3.50 or less.

Have a great trading week.