Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

Washington may be focused on the Sotomayor confirmation hearings, but Wall Street is prepping for earnings from the nation’s biggest banks.

Among the financial institutions reporting this week are Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citigroup. Other big names like Johnson & Johnson, IBM, General Electric and Intel also report this week.

Traders are buzzing about Goldman Sachs in particular, which recently paid back its share of government bailout money. Analysts are predicting the bank earned a profit of more than $2 billion in the March-June period, due to its trading prowess across world markets.

If they’re right, Goldman’s rivals will once again be left to wonder exactly how the bank, long the envy of Wall Street, could have rebounded so dramatically only months after the nation’s financial industry was shaken to its core.

Oil prices dip below $59/barrel

Oil prices briefly dropped below $59 per barrel today, dipping to a 7-week low below before rebounding on concerns about the state of the global economy.

Crude dropped 11% last week - the biggest weekly decline since late January - as traders worried the possibility of another dip in economic activity before the onset of recovery, which could delay a rebound in oil demand.

Gas down nearly 40% from last year’s record high

Gas prices dropped 8-tenths of a cent overnight to $2.529 - the 22nd straight day of declines.

In the last 22 days, the average price has decreased 16.4 cents, or 6.08 percent. The average price of a gallon of gas is also down $1.585, or 38.5 percent, from the record high price of $4.114 that AAA reported on July 17, 2008.

The highest gas prices are in Hawaii ($3.270). The cheapest are in Missouri ($2.281).

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