How do I read an Excel file into Python using xlrd? Can it read newer Office formats?

>>> open('ComponentReport-DJI.xls', 'rb').read(200)
'COMPANY NAMEtPRIMARY EXCHANGEtTICKERtSTYLEtICB SUBSECTORtMARKET CAP RANGE
tWEIGHT PCTtUSD CLOSEtrn3M Co.tNew York SEtMMMtN/AtDiversified Industria
lstBroadt5.15676229508t50.33trnAlcoa Inc.tNew York SEtA'

import pyExcelerator
book = pyExcelerator.parse_xls(filename)

data = book[0][1]
print 'Cell A1 of worksheet %s is: %s' % (book[0][0], repr(data[(0, 0)]))

import pyExcelerator
book = pyExcelerator.parse_xls('DJIAMovers.xls')