Weekend Reading: Going Sideways

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 a down week for the stock market. You can blame nothing more than higher prices for the most part. After the major indices ran so long and so far from their March lows, it shouldn't come as a big surprise that they've begun correcting.

Looking forward to next week, it is hard to see how this churning changes. Nervousness remains high about oil and Treasury debt sales, while home sales are wobbly and not much else about the U.S. economy looks like it has truly turned the corner. That doesn't mean we're headed down, of course. It's just that we're likely to run in place while the contradictory headlines waft past.

Turning to economic news, next week will bring data on new housing sales, a meeting of Federal Reserve policymakers and auctions of more than $100 billion in Treasuries. Each of these events will important, but the response to the Treasury auctions likely will be the biggest market mover.

As for earnings, we'll get reports next week from Oracle(ORCL Quote), Steelcase(SCS Quote), Nike(NKE Quote), Wyeth(WYE Quote) and Palm(PALM Quote).

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