Once again, the most wonderful time of the year is upon us. No, I'm not talking about spring, I'm referring to earnings season. March is over and we are just about to get a look at the stock market's first quarter numbers. Earnings season is always the best time to be researching new investment opportunities.

If you didn't notice, there's already good news to be had right now. There have hardly been any earnings warnings in the first quarter. A few companies pre-announced that they weren't going to meet expectations, but these are the exceptions.

This means that we are likely to get some solid earnings growth which could be the catalyst for this bull market to continue. Then again, if the numbers are good, but visibility is weak, this will be the catalyst for the market correction to begin.

A lot of people are now expecting a market correction this year. If you're a contrarian, this means you'd expect stock prices to keep going up. My view is that the market does need to take a bit of a rest, but will only do so once a new catalyst transpires. We'll see how first quarter numbers shape up in the very near-future.

General Electric will be reporting its numbers very soon and this is always worth taking note of because the company is a bellwether. Companies like Goldcorp continue to look great in this market with precious metal prices showing no sign of slowing down.

In my view, you just have to own some gold type investment over the near-term. The upward trend in gold prices is very real. Not only is gold a hedge against inflation, but it remains a safe haven asset that performs well when there's geopolitical uncertainty. There is still a lot of political risk for the global economy in regions like the Middle East.

With first quarter numbers upon us, the market will temporarily stop worrying about interest rates and inflation. This is good because it is now time for the market to worry about actual corporate earnings, and not just the cost of money in the future.