As left-handed golfer Phil Mickelson donned his third green jacket Sunday at the Masters in Augusta, it shareholders of Callaway Golf (ELY) and Golfsmith International (GOLF) stock had trouble basking in the glow. That's because the golf club maker and retailer (both Mickelson sponsors) had crafted a nifty promotion called "If Phil Wins, You Win." The campaign meant anyone who purchased a Callaway Diablo Edge driver in March or April would get their money back if Mickelson won the master.

Earlier this week, the Canadian province of Ontario announced that it had chosen the companies to build $8 billion worth of renewable energy projects under the province's strengthened feed-in tariff program. The new renewable supply totals about 2,500 megawatts, and solar stock Canadian Solar, Inc. (CSIQ) won about 28% of the program total, 176 megawatts.

The International Energy Agency this morning announced that it was raising its projection of crude oil demand increases in 2010 by 30,000 b/d, to 1.7 million b/d. Total demand is now expected to reach 86.6 million b/d.

Retail stock Walmart (WMT) is the quintessential capitalist success story. Founded by Sam Walton in 1962 as just a mom-and-pop retail store in a small Arkansas town, Walmart has managed to grow into the biggest retailer on the planet. As king of the retail sector, Walmart serves more than 200 million customers a week at more than 8,000 affiliated stores worldwide.

First quarter earnings season is finally upon us, as Alcoa (AA) kicked things off with a bang today. Over the next four weeks, 65% of the companies in the benchmark S&P 500 index will report results. Currently, the consensus estimates Q1 S&P 500 earnings per share of $17.07, representing a 39% increase over last year. According to Credit Suisse analysts, this forecast is consistent with the forecast of increased economic activity.

The two largest and most obvious tech sector earnings reports to watch this week are Intel Corporation (INTC) and Google Inc. (GOOG). There are others to watch out for as well, with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Linear Technology (LLTC), and Fairchild Semiconductor (FCS) all on deck this week. It is too soon for putting together color beyond basic estimates on next week's major tech earnings, but next week's biggest technology earnings are IBM (IBM), Apple Inc. (AAPL), VMware (VMW), EMC Corp. (EMC), Yahoo! (YHOO) and Micrososft (MSFT).

Hong Kong-listed Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. reported net profit rose 35% in 2009 to $173 million on sales of about $2.07 billion. The largest privately-owned Chinese car maker sold 325,413 cars in 2009, 59% above its 250,000-unit target. The elephant in the room, of course, is competition from foreign automakers like General Motors, Ford Motor (F), Toyota Motors (TM), Honda Motors (HMC), and Audi/Volkswagen.

About three weeks ago, an analyst at Canaccord Adams set a price target of $0/share for Palm Inc. (PALM). The company had just announced that it projected revenue for its fourth fiscal quarater ending in May would be half previous estimates. Canaccord Adams said at the time that there was no value in the company's common shares.

Two troubled electricity generating companies have announced a merger that will create a new company, called GenOn, with a market cap of $3.1 billion and 24,700 megawatts of generation. The merger, between Mirant Corp. (MIR) and RRI Energy Inc. (RRI), has been approved by the boards of directors of both comapneis and will now go to a shareholder vote. The deal creates the largest independent power producer in the U.S.

Though it's a bit later than fast-food rivals McDonald's (MCD) and Burger King (BKC), Arby's is at last rolling out a value menu of its own. The restaurant is adding more lower-priced items to its menu including a small roast beef sandwich, curly fries and a "jamocha" shake -- and operator Wendy's/Arby's Group (WEN) is backing them with an expensive new advertising campaign.

One of my favorite stocks for this year is one of the largest private landowners in the United States. Operating as a real estate investment trust, the company is Rayonier (RYN), and it specializes in growing and managing timber across its 2.6 million acres in the United States and New Zealand.

The tech blog rumor mill is running at full speed today about a partnership between online retail powerhouse Amazon.com (AMZN) and brick-and-mortar discounter Target (TGT). Supposedly, the hit Kindle e-reader will be on sale in Target stores later this month.

Poor Toyota (TM). When word of the Toyota recall first broke in February, nobody ever expected things to get this crazy. We saw a record $16.4 million fine last week, followed by rumors of cut to the Toyota dividend. But all that hullabaloo managed to obscure the fact that TM wasn't the only company having trouble with its brakes. In March, Honda (HMC) enacted a big recall of its own.

The recent report by a bankruptcy examiner reviewing the implosion of Lehman Brothers spent more than 300 pages detailing a practice known within the investment bank as "Repo 105", a practice the company used to minimize its reported debt. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that 18 other banks, including Goldman Sachs (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), JP Morgan Chase (JPM), Bank of America (BAC), and Citigroup (C) have been fudging the books with this maneuver.

The price of aluminum continues to rise, as it has through all of 2009. A year ago the price stood at about $0.62/lb., compared with $1.06 currently. Alcoa, Inc. (AA) shares have followed along, trading in a range of $8.10-$17.60 and closing yesterday at $14.87.

The world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores (WMT), will cut prices on as many as 10,000 food and general merchandise items in an effort to reverse is slowing U.S. sales growth. The new pricing has already begun in the company's 3,700 US stores.

When video game stock Activision Blizzard (ATVI) released Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in 2007, the video game hit all the right notes, winning over gamers and industry critics alike -- resulting in huge profits for Activision. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare led video game sales worldwide in 2007, moving 7 million copies that year despite a summer release, and ATVI has sold an additional 7 million copies in the years since.