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 a down week, with all three major U.S. indices losing ground. The Dow fell 0.6%, as did the Standard & Poor's 500 index. The Nasdaq Composite lost 0.7% on the week.

Turning to economic news, the Conference Board plans to release its January consumer confidence reading Tuesday. Next up, Fed policymakers plan to meet Tuesday and Wednesday; they're expected to leave the federal funds rate unchanged at 5.25%. Wednesday also will bring fourth-quarter GDP (with the consensus being for 3.0% growth), as well as the National Association of Purchasing Management's Chicago business survey. Then on Thursday, we will see December data on personal income and spending. Also on Thursday's schedule: January domestic car and truck sales. Lastly, the government plans to release January U.S. employment data Friday. The consensus is that employers added 145,000 nonfarm jobs during the month. ...