Markets ended the week mixed.  After a strong start to the week, the news on Goldman Sachs effected a pullback Friday.  The Dow ended up .19% and the NASDAQ 1.11%, but the S&P was down .19%.  The drop Friday was widely attributed to the SEC’s charging of Goldman Sachs with fraud relating to its financial products tied to subprime mortgages.  Markets were already aflutter Friday morning, digesting Google’s earnings report: while earnings were up an impressive 37% from last April, the stock’s price fell, and finally ended the day down almost 8%.

Jobless claims unexpectedly rose by 24,000 from last week, as opposed to the anticipated drop of 11,000. Despite this disappointing figure, we still feel the economy is on the right track. Earnings season is fully upon us, and we expect to see promising news across the board.

Leading Indicators, a favorite statistic at the firm, is released next week. We also are looking forward to retail sales numbers and the release on inflation.