Weekend Reading: Strength After Storm

Good Sunday morning. Here are some articles and papers worth reading. First, however, a look back at the week that just finished, and a look forward at the week ahead.

The major markets slid last week. Higher oil and the arrival of Hurricane Rita conspired to make investors feel like, all else being equal, they would rather have their money elsewhere. The result: the Dow and the S&P 500 lost 2.1% and 1.8%, respectively, while the Nasdaq dropped 2%. Click here for the weekly performance.

This week will almost certainly see a reversal. While there is legitimate concern about the resilience of the U.S. economy in 2006, third-quarter earnings numbers should be relatively solid. More short term, with Hurricane Rita out of the way, the markets will feel newly overly pessimistic. However, that will almost certainly get fixed by stocks trending in the opposite direction of their recent downward slide.

Turning to the economic week ahead, on Tuesday, we have September consumer confidence numbers, and those are expected to have declined markedly from August. Late in the week we will see the Chicago Purchasing Managers' Index, a forward-looking measure of industrial activity, which is expected to climb slightly.

Over on earnings, it is still quiet, with the third-quarter flood two weeks away. Among others, we will have Walgreen (WAG Quote) (Monday) and Red Hat (RHAT Quote) (Wednesday).

Finally, here are some articles and papers worth reading:

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• China central bank chief says free-floating yuan inevitable (Reuters)
• Venzuelan president says $100 oil in the picture (Fortune)
• Well-done profile of Alberta's oil sands industry, with its reserves ranking with Saudi Arabia (Fortune)
• Genetech selloff over Avastin trial results overdone (Reuters)
• Adesa and AMIS Holdings head list of broken IPOs worth a look (BusinessWeek)
• Michael Steinhardt calls recent market performance remarkably impervious to events (Bloomberg)
• Barron's picks Royal Bank of Scotland, profiles telecom and pans WiMax (Barron's)
• Technical problems with Apple's iPod Nano (News.com)
• U.S. inflation has hit highest level since 1991: a remarkably low 4% (Economist)
• The U.S. continues to spend while rest of world saves -- for how much longer? (Economist)
• When insiders and analysts disagree, the insiders are usually right (New York Times/SSRN)
• Lawsuit against fund manager Mario Gabelli alleges looting the assets of the company (New York Times)
• Keynote Systems caught in controversy over Web-traffic statistics (TechWeb)
• The SEC is taking up soft dollars, with a 30-day comment period opened (Institutional Investor)
• Research: A non-behavioral explanation for why so many people get suckered into losing money in the markets (SSRN)
• Research: The not-so wisdom of analyst crowds (SSRN)

1 What would best describe your stance heading into the coming week of trading? Bullish Bearish Neutral 2 Which of these sectors do you think is set to move up in the coming week? --Choose One--Aerospace and DefenseAirlinesAutomobilesBeverages and Food ProductsBiotechnologyCommercial BanksComputers and PeripheralsConsumer NondurablesEnergy Equipment & ServicesHMOs and HospitalsHomebuildingInsuranceIntegrated OilInternet, Software ServicesInvestment Bankers and BrokersMediaMultiline RetailPharmaceuticalsPrecious MetalsSemis, Semi EquipmentTelecom EquipmentTobacco and AlcoholWireless CommunicationsUtilities 3 Which of these sectors do you think is set to move down in the coming week? --Choose One--Aerospace and DefenseAirlinesAutomobilesBeverages and Food ProductsBiotechnologyCommercial BanksComputers and PeripheralsConsumer NondurablesEnergy Equipment & ServicesHMOs and HospitalsHomebuildingInsuranceIntegrated OilInternet, Software ServicesInvestment Bankers and BrokersMediaMultiline RetailPharmaceuticalsPrecious MetalsSemis, Semi EquipmentTelecom EquipmentTobacco and AlcoholWireless CommunicationsUtilities View the results without voting