CRIMINAL CHARGES AGAINST THE BIG WALLSTREET GUYS???

Wow! Shocking security fraud charges against Wall Street behemoth Goldman Sachs are likely to affect the markets in the short term but unlikely to have longer-lasting effects, market experts said.

Stocks dropped sharply and Goldman [GS 158.52 -25.75 (-13.97%) ] in particular surrendered well over 10 percent in share price, but the reaction on trading floors and from portfolio managers is that investors will get over the shock in short term.

"Everything we're dealing with happened a couple of years ago," said Dave Lutz, managing director of trading for Stifel Nicolaus in Baltimore. "Ultimately, once this noise has washed out, it's going to translate into one heck of a buying opportunity."

Anton Schutz, portfolio manager at Burnham Financial Services, called the investigation into Goldman "a witch hunt" and politically expedient at a time when Main Street investors are increasingly suspicious of Wall Street business practices.

The prevailing sentiment was that the damage to Goldman and the financial markets would only provide opportunity.
The negative effect for Goldman Sachs will be "significant," but will be a "short-term problem" for the company, said Dick Bove, an analyst for Rochdale Securities. "Whenever the SEC issues these type of charges against a company, there's generally a long, drawn-out legal battle that will change the company's procedures. But it will be a short-term problem. For the long term, it will pass," Bove said.
However, the quick decline also could set up for those with a more immediate time horizon

"The Goldman news today could cause the same market reaction as (President) Obama’s announcement in January that he would seek to regulate the business practices of our nations banks," said Thomas H. Kee Jr., President and CEO of Stock Traders Daily.
"From there, the market fell hard. From here, because the technicals and fundamentals are showing resistance at the same time, a similar market decline can follow. In January, the technicals and fundamentals lined up too. More importantly though, many short sellers were lined up then, and they are lined up now. There are plenty of similarities. In January, the button was pushed by Obama. This time, it was pushed by the SEC."

All in a day's work!