Trader Talk

Ryan T. Conaty | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Same store sales down 19 percent in Q1. Huh? This has got to be one of the worst quarters in the history of retailing.

JCPenney was hit with a double whammy today: not only were earnings a huge disappointment after the close, but their

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[JCP  Loading...      ()   ] competitors are gaining on them.

Management changed the shopping experience but didn't change the quality of the product. There is no call to action.

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AP

The overall economic data was okay today: CPI was in-line, Retail Sales were in-line, Empire State index was big upside (but the outlook was weak). And perhaps most importantly, the NAHB Housing Market Index was well above expectations. Sales, traffic, and future prospects were all better.

The NAHB Index rose to 29, the highest reading since May 2007. Home-building stocks are rallying on that.

Okay, it's a pretty modest number. A reading over 50 indicates higher levels of optimism, so it's still a pretty weak data point...but it's improving.

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PNC | Brand X Pictures | Getty Images Greek Parliament

The euro dropped, along with European stocks and U.S. futures, around 9 a.m. ET as Greek leaders announced they had failed to agree on a new government and there would be new elections.

Speaking of Greece: It said it would pay a 430 million euro ($553 billion) bond that matures today. All of it. No haircuts. This was one of those bonds controlled by London law. They were sold at a large discount, but were never a part of the

. Somebody has made a lot of money. This was part of the 7 billion euros ($9 billion) of outstanding foreign law bonds outstanding.

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Sabine Scheckel | Stone | Getty Images

Weakness right across the board today: Four-month lows in copper and the euro, five-month lows in crude, gold, the Aussie dollar, and the U.K. and French stock markets.

Greece — no coalition, no government. European Union officials are now openly discussing Greece leaving the euro.

So there will be a second election in Greece, likely June 17. Alexis Tsipras, the head of Greece's leftist Syriza coalition, is the new superstar ... or is he? This one is going to be about staying in or out of the euro — polls indicate about 75 percent of the electorate want to stay in. The European leadership will likely get very loud now, saying, "You can't stay in the euro and repudiate the bailout." The worst case: another stalemate. The Europeans succeed in denying Tsipras a clear mandate to government, but the parties supporting the bailout again fail to form a coalition.

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Getty Images A tour bus passes the Wall Street bull in the financial district January 22, 2007 in New York City.

What a morning! We have Greece with a 436 million euro bond coming due next Tuesday, Spanish authorities want higher loan loss provisions against bad debts (more dilution for banks), and JPMorgan...and we move into positive territory on a 120 point swing in the Dow.

The market can take Greece, France, Spain and JPMorgan

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[JPM  Loading...      ()   ] and still rally on the day. Wow.

And please don't tell me we just moved the Dow a hundred points in an hour on better than expected April PPI, which seems to be due to lower energy prices. Really? Is there massive worry about inflation at the moment? I don't think so.

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Bloomberg | Getty Images

Risk management is still no science. Is it not ironic that JPMorgan Chase

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[JPM  Loading...      ()   ] announced a $2 billion hedging loss in the chief investment office, which is designed to hedge risk for the entire organization. There may be more. They re-hedged synthetic credit exposure (credit default swaps? ) designed to hedge its corporate credit risk. Not a successful strategy. It isn't working.

We have very little visibility in the trading part of these firms.

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Who's paying what to Greece and when are they paying it? I have received numerous requests to explain the payment schedule of the 172.6 billion euro Greek bailout package. That is $34.4 billion remaining from the first bailout, and $138.2 billion from the second.

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Jorg Greuel | Getty Images Greece

Like yesterday (Tuesday), the market drifted lower after opening to the downside. Typically, stocks will stabilize a little after 10am ET on a down day, but the market action is choppy, again.

One issue: Will the Troika (EU/IMF/ECB) make a scheduled 5.2 billion euro payment to Greece tomorrow? There are conflicting reports out about this, though it has already been scheduled to be paid. Eurozone officials have reportedly scheduled a conference call to discuss.

We are back in the land of obscure websites. Some traders are also pointing to a blog maintained by the English-language site Athensnews, which put up the following post a little after 10am ET:

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