Investors will be watching Congress next week as lawmakers return from recess and begin their review of tax measures proposed by President Obama in an effort to get the economy growing again at a healthy rate.

The president this week proposed new tax credits and write-offs for business investments, but it is unclear whether Congress will come up with the votes before lawmakers leave Washington again after only a few weeks to campaign before the hotly contested midterm elections Nov. 2.

Meanwhile, economic bellwethers FedEx Corp. (NYSE:FDX) and Best Buy Co. (NYSE:BBY), as well as a couple technology giants, are reporting quarterly results next week.

Business-software giant Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ:ORCL), package-delivery company FedEx, big-box electronics retailer Best Buy and Blackberry-maker Research in Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ:RIMM) all will post quarterly results. Analysts have low expectations for Best Buy, which reports Tuesday, because of reports of slowing consumer spending from first-quarter levels. FedEx, which reports Thursday, in July raised its earnings forecast 21% for the fiscal first quarter ending Aug. 31, citing an unexpectedly strong performance by its premium international delivery service.

Oracle and RIM also will post results Thursday. Oracle is expected to post strong results despite concerns about business spending on technology slowing, while concerns are growing about RIM's competition from Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) latest iPhone 4 and other smartphones.

The government will release its August Producer Price Index, which measures wholesale inflation, and Consumer Price Index, which reflects changes in retail prices, on Thursday and next Friday, respectively. Out Wednesday are August figures on industrial production. Reports on regional economic activity are due Wednesday for New York and Thursday from the Philadelphia Fed.

International banking regulators are meeting this weekend at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, to thrash out precise limits to the amount of risk banks can take on and the level of capital reserves they have to keep against potential losses, aiming to prevent a repeat of the 2007-08 financial crisis. The more restrictive the new standards, the harder they will make it for banks to lend, and the harder it will become for the world economy to grow its way out of its debt problems. The new standards, superseding the existing Basel II accords, are supposed to be the regulators' contribution to the G-20 group's agenda and will be presented for approval at the G-20 summit in South Korea in November.

The Environmental Protection Agency will hold a public hearing Tuesday to discuss controversial greenhouse-gas permitting requirements under the Clean Air Act. The hearing aims to solicit comment on the EPA's plan to issue permits to large greenhouse gas emitters, such as power plants and oil refineries. Under current rules, these industries have to obtain greenhouse gas permits starting Jan. 2.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is slated to appear Wednesday before the House Ways and Means Committee to discuss concerns about China's valuation of its currency. Lawmakers continue to express frustration about the slow appreciation of the yuan, which has risen less than half a percent since China's June decision to drop a de facto peg to the U.S. dollar.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission will hold a public roundtable next week where market players will discuss how new swap trading rules should be designed. The new clearing and trading rules are meant to reduce  risk in the system and bolster price transparency in the largely unregulated $615 trillion over-the-counter market.

Federal futures regulators will hold a public meeting Thursday to discuss a proposal that would let them collect more detailed ownership information for all U.S. futures trading accounts. The proposed rule, floated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in July, would let the regulator collect data such as the name of an account owner and the owner's date of birth. The goal of the rule is to help the CFTC improve its surveillance and enforcement of the markets.

Among the significant conferences next week are the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Investment Conference from Monday through Wednesday in San Francisco, Barclays Capital Financial Services Conference on Monday and Tuesday in New York, Morgan Stanley Global Healthcare Conference from Monday through Wednesday in New York, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. Technology Conference from Tuesday through Thursday in San Francisco, Goldman Sachs Global Retail Conference on Tuesday and Wednesday in New York, Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference on Wednesday and Thursday in Newport Beach, Calif., and Barclays Capital Energy/Power Conference on Wednesday and Thursday in New York.