Retail Review: Weekend Reading

Good Sunday afternoon, and welcome to another edition of Weekend Reading. First a look back at the week that just finished, then a look forward to the week ahead, and, lastly, a summary of articles and research papers worth reading.

It was an impressive week for the major markets, especially given how badly the previous week ended. For the most part, equities around the world posted gains. The major U.S. indices were up more than 3%, and the Shanghai Composite advanced 5.6%. Oil and gold both did well on the week, with the latter hitting new highs on the back of an almost 5% gain on the week. The dollar firmed up slightly, largely on technicals after weeks of weakness. Click here to see a table showing how major markets performed.

Next week the attention will turn to retail, at least in the U.S. We have a spate of retailers reporting. The only surprise will be if they report that U.S. consumers are spending at historical levels, which will be a sign that they are making things up or their computers are malfunctioning. Although we will see some improvement from the pits of last January, that isn't necessarily saying much. None of this will be news to the markets, however, so unless we see a major surprise the markets could conceivably churn higher on hopes that global growth will drag Western economies out of recession faster than nonspending U.S. consumers are dragging them down.

Turning to economic indicators, it will be a big week for Treasury debt sales, and the first one since the Fed's Treasury purchase program ended, so it will be important to see what demand looks like. Next week we will also data on the September international trade deficit for the U.S., plus an initial reading on November consumer sentiment.

As for earnings, here are some retail reports to watch for: Wal-Mart(WMT Quote), Kohl's(KSS Quote), Macy's(M Quote) and J.C. Penney(JCP Quote).

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