Market Jitters: 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 papers worth reading.

It was a down week for the major U.S. indices. The S&P 500 lost 2.2%, the Dow fell 1.6% and the Nasdaq dropped 2%. Although the losses are noteworthy, the indices are still on track for 14% gains for the quarter, which is impressive.

Next week brings a new quarter. Stocks are no longer anywhere near cheap, central banks are promising to begin undoing some of the programs begun a year ago to prevent the (financial) world from ending and unemployment still is ticking higher. This combination of factors has caused investors to worry that the recovery from the lows of last March at last may come undone.

Turning to economic indicators, next week will bring the September nonfarm payrolls report, final second-quarter GDP data, the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index and factory activity.

As for earnings, we'll see reports from Darden Restaurants(DRI Quote), Walgreen(WAG Quote), Nike(NKE Quote) and Micron(MU Quote).