Weekend Reading: Ugly Data

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 finally, a summary of articles of papers worth reading.

It was the worst week on the major markets since late November. Demonstrating how much volatility has subsided since then, "worst" last week meant a Dow loss of merely 5%, as opposed to the double-digit losses we used to see. This week's catalysts were crummy economic and company data. Also, the markets frothy rise in preceding weeks helped set it up for a fall.

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