Kedrosky's Weekend Reading

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Good Sunday morning, and welcome to Weekend Reading. As always, here are some articles and papers worth reading. First, however, let's review the week that just finished and take a look forward to the week ahead.

The major U.S. indices were up last week for the first time in three weeks. While it may have felt worse than it was, the reality is that the markets only saw losses two days last week, and those weren't enough to offset gains. The Dow and the S&P 500 ended the week up 0.4% and 1.4% respectively, while the Nasdaq gained 1.3%.

Nervousness remains rampant, so next week is likely to be another highly skittish one in the markets. All eyes remain on subprime-lending issues, and the main concerns are whether things are worse than we know, and whether subprime's effects will spread more consistently beyond housing into the broader economy. Assuming so, most investors seemingly believe the Federal Reserve will ride to the rescue, even if in a sense it already has, providing the banking sector with more liquidity this week than any time since the September 11 terrorist attacks. It should be an entertaining week.

Turning to economic indicators, on Wednesday we will see inflation data via the core consumer price index, or CPI. On Friday we will see the Reuters/University of Michigan Consumer Surveys' preliminary August reading, which is expected to slip slightly. Investors will also be watching July U.S. retail sales data, which come out Monday. Finally, on Thursday we will see July housing starts, which will see further decline.