WEEKAHEAD-The view from Reuters editors in the Americas

MARKETS - Volatility is the name of the game in U.S. markets after the mysterious and furious plunge in stocks on Thursday. Confidence has been deeply disturbed and if Friday was any indication, wild swings are in order. Congress plans a hearing on Tuesday into what happened. Apart from news on what caused the plunge, traders will be glued to their screens for developments in Greece and elsewhere in the euro zone with less-than-robust finances. With everybody avoiding risk, the U.S. government should have little trouble finding buyers for $78 billion of bonds, even with yields around five-month lows.

REGULATION - The plunge in the U.S. stock market on Thursday underscored that reforms under debate in the U.S. Senate do little to address new trading technology. The Senate votes on Tuesday on a proposal to shine more light on the Federal Reserve's role in the 2008-2009 bank bailouts. This is a compromise designed to kill a more controversial one, fiercely resisted by the Fed, that would have exposed the U.S. central bank to regular audits of how it helps banks. A Republican effort to reform housing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will likely be rejected, but that will only highlight how regulatory reform is unfinished until the agencies problem is solved. Democrats want a final vote on the overall bill by the end of the week. But with more than 140 amendments fighting for debate time, that may not happen. kevin.drawbaugh@reuters.com

MANUFACTURING AND TRANSPORTATION SUMMIT - With the U.S. manufacturing sector growing at its fastest pace in almost six years in April, we'll be quizzing top executives appearing at the Reuters Manufacturing and Transportation summit in Chicago on how they plan to take advantage of both the nascent economic recovery at home and the booming emerging markets that helped many of them beat earnings expectations in recent quarters. Guests at the summit, running Monday through Wednesday, include Caterpillar (CAT.N) Chairman and CEO Jim Owens; General Electric (GE.N) Vice Chairman John Rice, YRC (YRCW.O) Worldwide Chairman Bill Zollars; Agco (AGCO.N) CEO Martin Richenhagen; Ingersoll-Rand (IR.N) CEO Michael Lamach; Navistar (NAV.N) CEO Daniel Ustian; and Timken (TKR.N) CEO Jim Griffith. Preview [ID:nN07188713]. martin.howell@thomsonreuters.com

CISCO, OFFICE 2010 - It's another busy week for tech, with Cisco's (CSCO.O) quarterly report and Microsoft's (MSFT.O) launch of Office 2010, both on Wednesday. Cisco is expected to report a 25 percent rise in revenue and provide another upbeat outlook as business spending picks up. Preview [ID:nN07270494]. Office 2010 will include updates of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook programs for Microsoft's most profitable product but the online document options will also be a focus, as Microsoft hopes to rev up corporate software spending and beat back emerging rival Google (GOOG.O) edwin.chan@thomsonreuters.com