A Down Week: Weekend Reading

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- 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. stock indices, the first in some time. Investors shrugged off good news to some degree, as earnings reports generally exceeded analysts' estimates. U.S. business appears to be seeing a broad rebound, much of which has to do with inventory restocking. Oil touched new recent highs as well, as did gold, while the 10-year Treasury continued to lose ground. Click here to see a chart showing how major financial markets performed this week.

Turning to economic indicators, the coming week will bring data on October consumer confidence, August home prices, durable goods orders, the latest jobless claims and the first estimate of U.S. third-quarter gross domestic product. There will also be be four Treasury auctions, with a total of $123 billion of notes up for sale.

As for earnings, next week will see reports from, among others, Exxon Mobil(XOM Quote), Chevron(CVX Quote), Verizon(VZ Quote), Colgate-Palmolive(CL Quote), Visa(V Quote) and Procter & Gamble(PG Quote).