Earnings reports

Companies set to report second quarter results today include Intel (INTC) after the market’s close, with analysts expecting earings of 7 cents per share. As a bellwether stock for the technology sector, Intel's results are expected to sharply increase trading volume on Wednesday. Also reporting is Goldman Sachs (GS), Yum Brands (YUM), and Johnson & Johnson (J&J)

Exxon Mobil investing $600 million in alt fuel

Oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. will announce Tuesday an investment of $600 million to produce liquid transportation fuels from algae in partnership with Synthetic Genomics, according to a report from the New York Times early today.

Retail sales

A report on June retail sales nationwide will be released today at 8:30 a.m. by the U.S. Commerce Department. (Update - Business inventories fell a sharp 1.1 percent in April as businesses pared stockroom shelves much faster than the 0.3 percent dip in business sales. Another decline in business inventories is expected. Preliminary numbers show a 0.6 percent decline in manufacturers' inventories for May and a 1.4 percent drop in wholesale inventories.

Producer Price Index rises
The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods rose 1.8 percent in June, seasonally adjusted, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported this morning. This advance followed increases of 0.2 percent in May and 0.3 percent in April.

Conference calls

Conference calls scheduled for today include: Intel at 5:30 p.m., Dell at 9:00 a.m., and CSX Corp. at 8:30 a.m.

U.S. Officials visit China to highlight clean energy

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke arrive to China to stay through July 17 to highlight the potential for mutually beneficial relationships in the clean energy sector, as well as promoting energy efficiency and curb pollution.

Earnings reports later this week

Google reports earning reasults on Thursday after the closing bell. Analysts expect $5.06 a share in profit, up from $4.63 last year. IBM Corp. is scheduled to report its second-quarter results after the closing bell on Thursday. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect IBM to earn $2.02 per share on $23.59 billion in sales. In the same quarter last year, IBM had profit of $1.97 per share and revenue of $26.82 billion.

Intersolar North America

Intersolar North America, a business-to-business trade show in the United States for the global solar industry will be held in San Francisco, CA from July 14 to 16.

20th World Oil Forum 2009

The 20th World Oil Forum 2009 kicks off from July 13-15 in London, UK where world oil and gas executives will meet to focus on critical matters of the industry such as shifting geopolitics in energy, strategy, commercial and business development issues which may impact projects in Africa, Asia, Latin America , Middle East and Russia.