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Alcoa kicked off 4th quarter earnings season to a good start on Tuesday, and for those who like to trade the wild rides that generally occur at this time, the staff at Kapitall.com screened for some possible candidates.

Are you a momentum investor who likes to take advantage of trading during earnings season?

With that in mind we screened for all stocks reporting earnings next week. We then screened for those with bullish sentiment from short sellers, with significant decreases in shares shorted month-over-month. This indicates that short sellers are less bearish on these names than they were a month ago.

Analyst ratings sourced from Zacks Investment Research
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Do you think these stocks are poised to move higher? Use this list as a starting point for your own analysis.

1. Comerica Incorporated (CMA): Provides various financial products and services in Texas, Arizona, California, Florida, and Michigan, with select businesses operating in several other states, as well as in Canada and Mexico. Market cap at $6.2B, most recent closing price at $32.59. Shares shorted have decreased from 9.84M to 7.79M over the last month, a decrease which represents about 1.09% of the company's float of 188.87M shares. Days to cover ratio at 3.22 days. The company is expected to report earnings on January 14, 2013.

2. First Horizon National Corporation (FHN): Operates as the holding company for First Tennessee Bank National Association, which provides various financial services in the United States and internationally. Market cap at $2.58B, most recent closing price at $10.46. Shares shorted have decreased from 23.38M to 19.17M over the last month, a decrease which represents about 1.73% of the company's float of 243.21M shares. Days to cover ratio at 5.05 days. The company is expected to report earnings on January 18, 2013.

3. Knight Capital Group, Inc. (KCG): Provides access to the capital markets across multiple asset classes to buy- and sell-side firms, and corporations, as well as offers capital markets services to corporate issuers and private companies primarily in the United States. Market cap at $742.81M, most recent closing price at $3.67. Shares shorted have decreased from 9.85M to 7.35M over the last month, a decrease which represents about 1.39% of the company's float of 179.65M shares. Days to cover ratio at 1.73 days. The company is expected to report earnings on January 14, 2013.

4. Lennar Corp. (LEN): Operates as a home builder and provider of financial services in the United States. Market cap at $7.68B, most recent closing price at $40.23. Shares shorted have decreased from 37.60M to 34.81M over the last month, a decrease which represents about 1.7% of the company's float of 163.92M shares. Days to cover ratio at 7.14 days. The company is expected to report earnings on January 15, 2013.

5. Webster Financial Corp. (WBS): Operates as the holding company for the Webster Bank that provides various banking and financial products and services in southern New England and eastern New York State. Market cap at $1.86B, most recent closing price at $21.74. Shares shorted have decreased from 5.10M to 3.42M over the last month, a decrease which represents about 1.94% of the company's float of 86.53M shares. Days to cover ratio at 4.93 days. The company is expected to report earnings on January 18, 2013.

Short data sourced from Yahoo! Finance, all other data sourced from Finviz.

Find more stock analysis and screens at Kapitall.com.