Earnings Divide: Weekend Reading

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Good 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 another week of surprises from the major markets around the world. Worries remain about the dollar, and gold and oil hit new highs for the year. Yet stock markets still managed to advance, although the gains were far from smooth.

High on the list of things making investors nervous were uneven quarterly results from major companies. Given the avalanche of earnings coming next week, I would expect more of same, with an almost even split between companies who announce improved results and solid prospects (i.e., Google(GOOG Quote)) and companies who disappoint investors (i.e., General Electric(GE Quote)). Most of the risk will be at the currency level, with changes in the dollar and gold putting investors into paroxysms. Market participants also will be watching the slow train wreck that is commercial real estate, with "extend and pretend" looking more and more like just "pretend."

Turning to economic indicators, next week we will see September housing starts, the Federal Reserve's Beige Book and the September producer price index. It also seems like pretty much everyone at the Fed, including Ben Bernanke, will be on the speaking trail next week.

As for earnings, we will see reports from 3M(3M Quote), Microsoft(MSFT Quote), McDonald's(MCD Quote), Pfizer(PFE Quote), American Express(AXP Quote), DuPont(DD Quote), Texas Instruments(TXN Quote), Amazon.com(AMZN Quote), Yahoo!(YHOO Quote), United Parcel Service(UPS Quote), eBay(EBAY Quote) and Wells Fargo(WFC Quote).