Sizing Up QE2: 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 a toss-up of a week for the major U.S. stock markets ahead of the second round of quantitative easing (QE2). The Dow ended down slightly, as did the S&P 500, but the Nasdaq gained 0.9%.

This week was mostly about the same things as the coming week will be: the long-heralded announcement of more quantitative easy from the Federal Reserve, plus U.S. midterm elections.

As many have pointed out, the U.S. markets are about to get two things it has said it wants: more Republicans in Congress, and more money from the Fed.

What remains to be seen is what the market will do after it gets what it wants.

Historically, investors would sell off such an outcome, but this time around the markets may very well party down -- by which I mean "up" -- some more.

It will mostly hinge on the size of Fed purchases. The consensus is around $100 billion. Less than that will be "bad" news, and more than that will be "good" news. But a lot more will be "bad" news.

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Turning to economic news, next week we'll see the Treasury announce debt purchases. We'll also receive the nonfarm payroll report for October, which is expected to show a small gain in jobs, albeit with unemployment sitting at 9.6%.

As for earnings, the week will bring reports from Corning(GLW), Archer Daniels Midland(ADM), Pfizer(PFE) and Qualcomm(QCOM).