Stocks Slide Late After More Evidence of Greek Exit from Euro Spooks Markets

The headline really says it all on today's turnaround Tuesday.

With the major averages putting in a nice follow-up to Monday's lift-off, the major indices were set to put in their second winning day in a row. The Dow was sporting a 50-point advance just after 3:00 p EDT when word came out of Greece by former Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, saying that preparations for an exit of Greece from the Euro zone are being considered, and said the scope to renegotiate the ongoing EU and IMF loan program would be "very limited."

That's when a 50-point gain became a 50-point loss in a matter of minutes, though all of the major indices recovered to end the session nearly unchanged.

Overnight, this news will likely sink in a little further and it would be expected that Asian and European market would open tomorrow lower. As word of Papademos' statement spread, the worst victim was the Euro, which fell below 1.27 to the dollar on foreign exchanges.

It is fascinating to watch how this entire Greek drama is being played out, especially in reference to market response. As event have unfolded over the past year to 18 months, market reaction has become one of initial knee-jerking, followed by bouts of disbelief and buying into the dips, though as the situation has turned from bad to worse in Greece, stocks seem more inclined to shrug off any bad news, whereas, earlier, like in September of last year, markets took violent, hefty swings on dispatches from the continent.

What will occur in global markets when the Hellenic state is finally on its own again and officially dismissed from the Eurozone - now a 90% chance according to most euro experts - is anybody's guess, though most investors are girding for the worst case, reminiscent of the Lehman breakdown back in '08, though this time around, there's been plenty of time to prepare.

The other major story of the day concerned Facebook, as the NASDAQ continues attempts at cleaning up the mess that they created. Due to technical issues in their electronic trading system, as of Tuesday morning, some investors still had not received confirmation of their trades and the NASDAQ was talking about raising its own loss provision for bad trades from $3 million to $13 million, as trading desks and market makers toll their losses.

It was also revealed today that Morgan Stanley's analysis arm had downgraded the stock just prior to the IPO, another odd and damaging situation, given that Morgan Stanley (MS) was the lead underwriter on the deal. The firm, by law, is supposed to have a "Chinese wall" between analysts and underwriters, but one has to wonder if the firm was shorting the IPO a la Goldman Sachs. The situation will be investigated, though it's highly doubtful that anything will come of it, in as much as the trades were such a convoluted mess one wonders if officials will ever be able to untangle the mess.

Facebook closed the day at 31.00, a full seven points below Friday's IPO price, with a loss of 3.03 (8.90%). Founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, who was supposed to have bankrolled $18 in paper profits on the public opening of the company, may have to just suffer through life with a measly $15 billion.

Yep, life sure is tough.

Dow 12,502.81, -1.67 (0.01%)
NASDAQ 2,839.08, -8.13 (0.29%)
S&P 500 1,316.63, +0.64 (0.05%)
NYSE Composite 7,532.32, -10.66 (0.14%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,755,814,375.00
NYSE Volume 4,056,273,750
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 2522-3114
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 45-113
WTI crude oil: 91.66, 0.91
Gold: 1,576.60, -12.10
Silver: 28.18, -0.14

As Greece Prepares for Potential Default, Markets Take Pause

The troubled nation of Greece took center stage again today, as talks to reach agreement on restructuring private and public debt reached yet another impasse and discussions between Primier Lucas Papademos and leaders of the recently-formed unity government also could not agree on austerity measures to be imposed in order to receive the next round of bailout money from the trokia - the EU, ECB and IMF.

Today, Papademos asked experts at Athens' finance ministry to compile a detailed analysis of what a Greek default would entail. The immediate response was that a bankruptcy of Greece would make what happened in Argentina more than a decade ago look like "a picnic."

With that backdrop, stocks opened sharply lower and remained in the red for the duration of the session, which marked the lowest volume day of the year. Rather than outright selling, traders seemed content to wait and watch developments in Europe, hoping that a default of Greece can be avoided. The major averages, though all down for the session, finished at or near their highs of the day.

Stocks are still up for the year. Today's pullback, like many before it, was minor and actually created more opportunities for day-traders than anyone else.

Dow 12,845.13, -17.10 (0.13%)
NASDAQ 2,901.99, -3.67 (0.13%)
S&P 500 1,344.33, -0.57 (0.04%)
NYSE Composite 8,041.85, -18.58 (0.23%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,648,986,500
NYSE Volume 3,310,194,500
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 2293-3331
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 211-9
WTI crude oil: 96.91, -0.93
Gold: 1,724.90, -15.40
Silver: 33.71, -0.04