While history may paint our stance with the heavy brush of criticism, we’re going on the record to call increased volatillity and a lower close on the S&P 500 by week’s end. We feel it is our duty to yell from the rooftops just how treacherous the current developments in world markets have become. While we won’t stamp corny metaphors to the ailing sovereign debt markets, wasting your time with visions of ships and storms, we do pray that readers appreciate the urgency of this week’s Weekly Spectrum.

If you ducked out of the office for a three day weekend and missed the news regarding Goldman Sachs and Greece on Friday, you may be rolling up your sleeves to a few surprises that will cast a dark shadow on the April 19 week’s market action.

Mainly, Goldman Sachs (GS) has been charged with fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), linked to a Credit Default Swap (CDS) mechanism known as “Abacus”.

As the ill-effects of a global financial crisis became evident to world leaders in late fall 2008, export driven economies with surplussed coffers of U.S. dollars did the obvious. They used the cash to stimulate their economies. In one specific nation, the Premier’s words fell like heavy boots on an ant hill, as decrees began to waterfall down from superiors to
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Inevitably even the grizzlies have been watching economic indicators gaging the housing market “recovery”, as talk of a 2009 rebound in the United States has now been confirmed by 3.5% growth in the third quarter. Existing home sales bottoming, construction spending pulsing and extreme incentives for new buyers have sweetened the potential for a repeat of the 2004 housing recovery we all loved so well. Yet there remains the issue of magnitude, regarding a potential housing recovery, which may contrast that of 2004 a great deal, and could kill the lasting effects of a bottomed housing market on the broader economy. We will attempt to review and assess the American economy by result of the Housing Market from a historical and quantitative standpoint.

Kicking of the June 15-19 trading week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 both sold off well over 2% and erased previous gains for the month. Should history repeat itself, U.S. equity trading this week will show marginally increased volatility and volume due to the "quadruple witching" day occurring on Friday. The significance
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