General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) will report its third-quarter earnings early on Friday morning. What investors need to know is that this may be a very different earnings report compared to the past. That is because GE has the Alstom deal, it has a deal to sell GE Appliances and it has started the unloading of the Synchrony Financial after its summer initial public offering. General Electric also made moves this quarter to acquire the world’s largest helicopter-leasing company, by fleet value, for $1.775 billion. GE’s current ambition is to be evaluated as an industrial conglomerate, rather than a conglomerate that is so dependent on consumer finance.

With so much change happening, 24/7 Wall St. would warn its readers that analysts are almost certain to have a hard time accurately depicting the real earnings picture here. That may not be true for this current report, but there are enough moving parts ahead that the company’s guidance could conceivably be misinterpreted — good could bad, or vice versa.

Investors should also keep in mind that GE has held up relatively well in the market carnage, although longer-term the shares are down 14% from their 52-week highs. The market currently is telegraphing that GE may get a pass on its earnings report, but in this sell-off we have also noticed some irrational patterns as well.

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Thomson Reuters has consensus estimates for General Electric’s earnings of $0.37 per share and $36.79 billion in revenue. That compares to $0.36 in earnings per share and $35.72 billion in revenue in the same quarter of 2013.

The consensus estimates for the fourth quarter are $0.57 in earnings per share and $41.56 billion in revenue. These would compare to $0.53 per share and $40.4 billion from a year earlier.

Options are not signaling any major move expected from GE’s earnings reports. The speculative puts and calls point to a move of up to only about 2% or so.

GE’s chart is one that has been looking for a bottom, with support in recent days around $24.00. The long-term moving averages would appear to be significant resistance up around $25.50, if the news happens to be great. The 50-day moving average is $25.53 and the 200-day moving average is $25.67.

Thursday morning, shares of General Electric were down by only five cents at $24.24. The company’s stock has a consensus analyst price target all the way up at about $29, and it has a 52-week range of $23.90 to $28.09. GE has a market cap of $243 billion.

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