Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ) kicked off a busy earnings week this morning. But the market is basically in wait-and-see mode until Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) reports earnings after the market closes on Wednesday. Amid its longest slump in years , Apple could use a strong fourth-quarter earnings report to help get out of its four-month rut. At roughly $500 a share, the world’s largest stock has fallen nearly 30% since late September. My colleague Jason Cimpl thinks tomorrow’s earnings report could inject some much-needed life into Apple’s shares, and is imploring people to buy Apple before earnings . “The pathetic stock performance following the latest (iPhone) release was a fluke,” Jason wrote last week. “…(But) this will be the first full quarter of iPhone 5 sales data. Though the iPhone 5 launched September 21, Apple’s fourth quarter ended on September 30. “Apple can put investors’ fears to rest with big earnings this quarter. And I think they’ll do it.” Apple can only hope that it sees as much earnings as Johnson & Johnson reported this morning. JNJ’s fourth-quarter earnings of 91 cents per share was more than 11 times better than its 8-cents-a-share earnings during the same quarter a year ago. Strong sales growth in the healthcare company’s medical device unit was largely responsible for the jump. Verizon’s fourth quarter wasn’t nearly as impressive. Costs from Hurricane Sandy and charges related to a pension fund resulted in a $4.23 billion loss for the large cap communications company. That’s more than twice the loss the company suffered in the same quarter a year ago. Here are the rest of this week’s more noteworthy earnings, starting with today’s after-market reports: Tuesday Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) IBM (NYSE: IBM) Wednesday Apple McDonalds (NYSE: MCD) Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) Thursday AT&T (NYSE: T) Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Xerox (NYSE: XRX) Friday Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG)