The US stock market finished the month of April "not with a bang but a whimper."  Even after falling 2.5% (total return) last week, the S&P 500 is still up +7.1% YTD through the end of April.  The +1.6% gain for the stock index last month was its 12th positive monthly gain in the last 14 months.  Stock market watchers are hoping that history repeats itself during the upcoming month.  May has been the best performing month for the S&P 500 over the past 2 decades (i.e., 1990-2009), gaining an average of +2.1% (source: BTN Research). 
 
The Senate committee asking questions last week of Goldman Sachs executives were incredulous at what they viewed as shocking conflicts of interest that are at the heart of the SEC case against the firm.  Wall Street insiders were equally incredulous at the naiveté of the questions posed by senators that do not understand the basics of being a market maker.  The larger issue may be how the court of public opinion influences the financial regulatory legislation that finally moved to the full Senate for debate at the end of last week (source: Senate). 
 
Both Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and former Chairman Alan Greenspan will share the dais later this week in Chicago at a Fed conference.  The 3-day meeting (Wednesday through Friday) will debate public policy as it relates to the banking, mortgage and financial services industries (source: Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago).