Holiday Quiet: 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 research papers worth reading.

It was another week of churning for the major markets. (See chart below.) Most made little headway, with the exception of China, for which the momentum was materially negative. Oil had one of its worst weeks this year, losing more than 7%, and gold did only slightly better, sliding almost 4%. The dollar continues its recent minirun higher and gained almost 1% on the week.

Looking ahead to next week, we have only a few trading days left before the end of the year. Other than a little messing about by portfolio managers trying to decorate their year-end statements with a few good companies, we shouldn't see much happen.

Turning to economic indicators, it will be a fairly busy week. We will see another read on third-quarter GDP, new- and existing-home sales for November, and some initial data on holiday shopping.

As for earnings, it will be one of the quietest weeks of the year. We will, however, see reports from ConAgra(CAG), Walgreen(WAG) and Jabil Circuit(JBL).

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Lastly, here are some articles and papers worth reading:

Editor's note: To access some of these stories, registration or a subscription may be required. Please check the individual links for each site's policy.

• M&A to see serious uptick in 2010 (IDD)
• Asset Bubbles and Market Crises (Journal of Investing)
• 2010 Investment Outlook (BusinessWeek)
• What we can learn from housing futures (Standard & Poor's)
• Barron's talks up shares of the big banks, as well as emerging market bonds (Barron's)
• Tiger Woods, Person of the Year -- like Enron, all about the art of the con (The New York Times)
• The perils of the world economy's Great Stabilisation (The Economist)
• Battle for the oil sands (The Globe and Mail)
• Iran Claims an Iraqi Oil Field It Seized (The New York Times)
• European banks face capital crisis (Times)
• Car plate price soars to record (Shangai Daily)
• Carbon credit capitalists (Bloomberg)
• Senate Health-Care Bill Poised for Passage In Victory for Obama (Bloomberg)
• Credit Derivatives Are Not 'Insurance' (SSRN)
• Lenders could take control of Thomas the Tank Engine (Telegraph)
• Few Experts Are Entirely Upbeat About 2010 (The New York Times)
• The Great Depression Analogy (NBER)
• Lessons from the Great American Real Estate Boom and Bust of the 1920s (NBER)

-- Written by Paul Kedrosky in La Jolla, Calif.

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