Second-quarter earnings season continues in force this week — and it hasn't been to bad so far on a statistical basis.

To date, 26% of the companies in the S&P 500 have reported actual results for the second quarter of 2020. In terms of earnings, the percentage of companies reporting actual EPS above estimates (81%) is above the five-year average, notes John Butters of FactSet.

“In aggregate, companies are reporting earnings that are 11.4% above the estimates, which is also above the five-year average. In terms of sales, the percentage of companies reporting actual sales above estimates (71%) is above the five-year average.”

With an avalanche of big names reporting this week, here are a few exchange traded funds to consider as earnings plays in the week ahead.

SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA)

On Tuesday, four Dow stocks report: 3M (NYSE:MMM), McDonald's (NYSE:MCD), Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and Visa (NYSE:V).

Then comes Boeing (NYSE:BA) on Wednesday and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) the next day, followed by Merck (NYSE:MRK) on Friday.

Technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK)

Speaking of Apple, the Technology Select Sector SPDR (NYSE:XLK), which slipped 1.53% following reports from Intel and Microsoft, allocates over 21% of its weight to Apple, so this is a big week for XLK and related ETFs.

Industrial Select Sector SPDR (XLI)

The Industrial Select Sector SPDR (NYSE:XLI) is up almost 8% over the last month, but still resides nearly 16% below its 52-week high. Hopes for a second-half rebound by this ETF could largely be determined this week with Boeing, 3M and General Electric (NYSE:GE) reporting.

The risk is that industrials are reporting year-over-year earnings declines and, on a percentage basis, only the consumer discretionary and energy sectors are worse offenders based on that metric.

Photo by Daniel Lu via Wikimedia.