Weekend Reading

Good Sunday morning, and welcome to Weekend Reading. As always, here are some articles and papers worth reading. First, however, a look back at the week that just finished, and a look forward to the week ahead.

It was an upbeat week on the major markets, with all three major U.S. indices advancing. It has been a great start to 2007 for technology stocks. The Nasdaq Composite is already up almost 4% so far in 2007, and some individual technology stocks are doing much, much better. For example, ever-maligned Yahoo, a stock I have been mentioning favorably since late 2006 in my CNBC "On the Money" appearances, is up more than 15% so far in 2007. Click here for the weekly performance of the big indices.

Turning to economic indicators, next week's focus will be inflation. Both the producer price index and the consumer price index are scheduled for release; watch the core numbers. Other economic indicators next week include the Philadelphia Fed's index of business conditions, and the University of Michigan's first read on January consumer sentiment. ...