Career News 24/7: STOCKS TUMBLE, JP MORGAN RALLIES: Here's What You Need To Know, June 13, 2012

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

STOCKS TUMBLE, JP MORGAN RALLIES: Here's What You Need To Know, June 13, 2012

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Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Mr. Dimon headed to Washington.

First the scoreboard:

Dow: 12,496, -77.4, -0.6%
S&P 500: 1,314, -9.3, -0.7%
NASDAQ: 2,818, -24.4, -0.8%

And now the top stories:

The advanced May retail sales fell 0.2 percent, which was right in line with economists estimates. However the underlying numbers were a bit disappointing. Excluding autos and gas, retail sales fell 0.1 percent, while economists were looking for a 0.4 percent gain. Jan Hatzius, Goldman Sachs' top U.S. economist, found the non-auto number troubling. He slashed his Q2 growth rate to 1.6 percent from 1.8 percent.
The retail sales number was bad news for retail sector stocks including Urban Outfitters and Macy's. SEE ALSO: 22 Companies Who Are Addicted To Walmart >
The May producer price index plunged 1.0 percent in May, which was much lower than the 0.6 percent decline economists were looking for. The big reason for this was energy prices, which fell 4.3 percent. This was the biggest drop in energy prices since March 2009.
Europe was pretty quiet today. European markets traded modestly higher early, but closed modestly lower. One area of resilience was Spain's stock market, which closed higher. But that's not to say people don't remain concerned. Societe Generale's Albert Edwards released a note today arguing that the proposed Spanish bank bailout solved nothing. Peter Tchir, on the other hand, offered six reasons why the critics of the bailout are being too harsh. CHART OF THE DAY: Spain's Gigantic Debt Problem >
All eyes were on Jamie Dimon's appearance before the Senate Banking Committee. The CEO of JP Morgan was there to answer questions about the bank's unexpected $2 billion trading loss. As expected, it was more political theatre than anything else. The whole thing was a bit of a cakewalk for Dimon as the Senators threw softball questions at him. Investors reacted positively, pushing JP Morgan shares higher.
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