Split Market: 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 bad week for the major U.S. indices and for markets worldwide. It was the worst down week since March, and it capped a monthly decline for October. Pretty much everything got beaten up, with the Nasdaq taking it worst, turning in a 5.1% decline for the week. The dollar climbed somewhat during the week on a species of safety trade, but even that wasn't much given how far the dollar has fallen in recent months. (See the table at the bottom of the page.)

Looking forward to next week, the market seems split. We got some of the correction that people (including me) had been calling for for weeks, and we could go considerably further given the magnitude of the markets' advance from March. At the same time, bears already feel awfully emboldened, with Friday replete with talk of a coming catastrophe, etc., which seems premature. It seems likely that markets will simply slow the pace of advance and throw in a few more weeks like the current one as we march toward December.

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Turning to economic news, the week's highlight should be the government's employment report on Friday. Elsewhere, Federal Reserve policymakers meet Tuesday and Wednesday. Investors will peruse the announcement following the meeting for hints about when the central bank might start to tighten monetary policy. We'll also see the Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing and service-sector surveys as well October car and struck sales.

As for earnings, next week will bring reports from Ford(F), Archer Daniels Midland(ADM), Blackboard(BBBB), News Corp.(NWS), Qualcomm(QCOM) and Whole Foods(WFMI).

Finally, here are some articles and papers worth reading:

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