In finance, the drug of choice is leverage.  Traders are enticed with ridiculous leverage offers to get them hooked.

Over at the US Treasury, they've been crowing about how much profit they've made. They rushed to save AIG and Citi by buying their toxic bonds. Then, they flew to the side of Fannie and Freddie when they were in trouble.

The US dollar finished the week roughly unchanged against major counterparts, holding key lows against the euro despite impressive gains in the US S&P 500 and broader risk sentiment.

Euro-region fundamentals deteriorated significantly this past week, and yet the euro has given up relatively little ground against its primary counterparts

The Japanese yen continued to lose ground against most of its major counterparts following the coordinated intervention by the Group of Seven.

Interest rate hike expectations remain the central driver behind British pound price action.

The Loonie was mostly higher all week, but stumbled on Friday as liberal opposition ousted the conservative government.

The housing market is in a double dip, and a report in today's news tells us that Fannie and Freddie may be hiding $100 billion in losses.

It was widely reported last week that the unemployment rate was down to its lowest level in almost two years.

The FTSE is struggling to make it back above the pivotal 5800 level, which also marks overhead resistance from the cloud formation.