By Angela Moon
NEW YORK (Reuters) - With all the hoopla over the Dow topping 17,000 out of the way, the market's next focus will be whether the fast-approaching earnings season can justify U.S. stocks climbing further into record territory.
Many factors point to second-quarter earnings poised to surprise substantially to the upside. There is a slight chance that profits for S&P 500 <.SPX> companies could return to double-digit growth for the first time in nearly three years.
After Thursday's strong U.S. employment report, some economists have begun talking up prospects for a 4.0 percent annual growth rate in gross domestic product for the April-through-June period, a dramatic snap back from the first quarter's contraction of 2.9 percent.
"We've had such a big move to this point that good data just isn't enough to drive this market much further. It's really coming down to company earnings. That's the only thing left that can lead this market higher," said Rick Meckler, president of LibertyView Capital Management, an investment advisory firm in Jersey City, New Jersey.
(Reporting by Angela Moon; Additional reporting by Richard Leong; Editing by Dan Burns and Jan Paschal)