EARNINGS WATCH: WAL-MART IN SPOTLIGHT

Retailers will dominate earnings news this week, led by Macy’s report on Wednesday and WalMart, Kohl’s and J.C. Penney on Thursday. Wal-Mart’s U.S. stores have seen six straight quarters of customer traffic declines and five straight quarters of sales declines at stores open at least a year. This week, two Dow 30 stocks and 16 Standard & Poor’s 500 companies report second-quarter earnings, according to FactSet.