The “sell-off” is now two weeks young as red flags are hoisted daily above a mob of jaw dropped spectators, formerly known as the efficient market. There is no absence of questions on the minds of international market forecasters. Instead, we’re hearing vague rhetoric from analysts and financiers that sounds more like confusion than any sort of prediction. The confident ones are still playing the “buy because markets are down” card, but we are taking an alternative, perhaps disagreeable, path.

Many of you may be asking yourself, “what’s changed since last week with the EU bailout?” One would think there would surely be some sort of news or development concerning the exact structure of this plan, rumored to be a sovereign debt backstop of $1 trillion USD. Is there surely some plan moving forward?

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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.

U.S. equity markets ended only slightly lower on Tuesday as early morning economic data started off the day with a spurt of confidence. The ISM Non-Manufacturing report gauged Chicago area service related industries deteriorating at a lower rate than previous months in April. The report clocked in at 43.7, above the markets estimate of 42.2
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