U.S. stock futures advanced Tuesday morning ahead of earnings reports from financial giant Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) and healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ). Goldman Sachs, along with the rest of financials, drove stocks higher on Monday following a favorable analyst call from Meredith Whitney. Many hope the enthusiasm was justified. Tech giant Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) will also be reporting after the close.But some economic reports investors will be interested in are also due this morning, including June retail sales and wholesale inflation. June retail sales, due out at 8:30 a.m. Eastern, are expected to have risen 0.4%, according to Briefing.com, less than the 0.5% increase in May.
Meanwhile, the June producer price index (PPI), a measure of wholesale inflation to be released at the same time, is expected to have jumped 1% after rising 0.2% in May. Core PPI, which excludes the volatile food and energy prices, is expected to have risen 0.1% after falling 0.1% in the month before.
Finally, May business inventories is expected to have recorded a 0.8% decline, following a 1.1% drop in April.
Overseas, world markets rallied Tuesday, with Japan's Nikkei finally napping a nine-day losing streak, as investors expected U.S. banks to report upbeat second quarter earnings. That's despite the fact that German investor confidence unexpectedly fell in July, suggesting the recovery in Europe's largest economy may take longer to materialize.However, the U.K. housing market improved last month and Singapore said Tuesday its economy surged an annualized, seasonally adjusted 20.4% in the second quarter.
With more positive signs out of Asia and Wall Street staging a rally Monday, oil prices climbed back above $60 a barrel Tuesday. Having U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner saying the force of the global recession is easing in his Middle East visit likely helped sentiment too.
Finally, CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT), which plunged Monday on concerns of its viability, jumped 27% in European trading after it said it's in "active discussions" with regulators about a rescue.
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