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.

The major U.S. indices were mixed last week, as the euphemism goes. For the week, the Dow rose 0.5%, and the S&P 500 basically stood still. The Nasdaq actually fell, losing 0.4%.

Looking forward to next week, it seems likely that we're headed for some sort of pullback. Granted, it may not be precisely next week, but after this kind of advance you would have to be an ether-inhaling optimist to believe that we're not going to see at least a 5% pullback, just on basic market principle. Your guess is as good as mine as to what precisely might bring about such a correction. Four-dollar gas? A new hostage-taking in Iraq? Crummy job data? Whatever it is, it will happen sooner rather than later now that the wheels are off the perpetual rally. ...