Earnings Watch
Cassidy said he'll be watching Wells Fargo results to see how residential mortgage production is faring at the country's largest home lender, particularly as overall origination is forecast to decline after a strong 2012.
The Mortgage Bankers Association forecasts that total U.S. mortgage origination activity in the first quarter will fall about 6 percent from last quarter.
For JPMorgan, which also boasts a residential mortgage business, their capital markets performance—which offers a glimpse into deal-making and trading activity—may be a bigger focus, Cassidy said.
According to a research note from Evercore Partners, JPMorgan is the most leveraged to capital markets activity among the big banks, with about 30 percent of total revenues coming from investment banking and trading versus only 20 to 25 percent for Citigroup and Bank of America and 5 percent for Wells Fargo.
Evercore analysts estimate that trading will be down nearly a fifth at JPMorgan this year.
Banks also collected fewer fees on investment banking advisory services in the first quarter than they did in the fourth. Fees totaled $19.8 billion during the first quarter of 2013, a 6 percent year-over-year increase, but down 11 percent from the fourth quarter, according to data from Thomson Reuters.
In the M&A market, the dollar value of mergers was up 10 percent from last year, but the number of deals dropped 16 percent, marking the slowest start to the year in a decade, Thomson Reuters' Matthew Toole told CNBC.
(Read More: 'Greece-Like Risk' for Financials: McDonald)
JPMorgan Catches an Upgrade
But even with potentially choppy capital markets results, Evercore is turning more bullish on JPMorgan, upgrading the stock to "overweight."
Evercore wrote that other fundamentals remain healthy with solid loan growth, deposit inflows and the least net interest margin risk among peers.
The analysts expect core earnings per share of $1.43 for the first quarter, above the Street consensus of $1.38.
The stock is also cheaper than other large-cap banks, trading on 8.6 times Evercore's 2013 estimates versus 10.2 times for its peers. Evercore's $55 price target on JPMorgan shares implies 17 percent upside.
Evercore also has an "overweight" on Bank of America with a $13 price target but "equalweight" ratings on Wells Fargo and Citigroup.