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.

The January 18 – 22 business week will begin one day late, due to Martin Luther King Jr holiday, leaving only Tuesday to Friday for market action to be staged. The most notable economic data releases will be the Housing Market Index (HMI) and Housing Starts numbers; while Treasury International Capital data, the Producer's Price
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The Institute for Supply Chain Management surprised the world on Monday morning, as they announced the results of their manufacturing managers survey. The report is essentially a survey where every manager is asked to respond to his own experience. Each manager states whether they see conditions improving, deteriorating or remaining constant, with respect to thirteen main criteria. The December survey’s
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The last five days before the shortened Christmas week may bring tidings of inflation, Bernanke rhetoric, and volatile Friday trading as investors unwrap both producer price (PPI) and consumer price indexes (CPI), foreshadowing Bernanke language, and a "quad witching" day on friday. We will get a taste testing of government debt as the 4 week, 3
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The five day trading week spanning November 16-20, 2009 will leave few stones unturned as the current economic strength is weighed and measured via the Retail Sales, Industrial Production, New Housing Starts, and Leading Indicator reports.  Retail Sales The September report showed negative growth in total sales on the back of a massive pullback from the
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