Pescod Says...

Trading loss grows at JPMorgan

The chase by Noah Zivitz:

Quite a day for JPMorgan Chase & Co. The infamous trading loss has ballooned to $4.4 billion. The Chief Investment Office's synthetic group is being shuttered. CEO Jamie Dimon says recent events are limited to the CIO division and the bank believes it has "put most of this problem behind us." The board is continuing to review whether more action is required as a result of what transpired in the CIO. As for earnings, the net income came in miles ahead of expectations, but it's littered with one-time items. Strip it all away, and it looks like a miss.

Dimon is trying to reassure investors, saying JPM's fortress balance sheet is still strong. His Q&A with analysts at 7:30 a.m. ET should be fascinating. We'll have it all covered, with Paul Bagnell doing the heavy lifting. Let's evaluate whether Dimon has done enough to restore his reputation, and ask guests if investors should touch JPM shares today.

And don't forget Wells Fargo is also reporting.

We're also staring at a round of economic Whack-A-Mole.

In China, second quarter growth sputtered to the slowest pace since the first quarter of 2009. A 7.6-percent expansion is enough to make most Western nations blush; not so in Beijing, where policymakers have been flexing their stimulus trigger fingers in recent weeks. Today we must ask what the next moves are in Beijing's halls of power.

Here's where our mallets come into play: Moody's cut its rating on Italian debt two notches to Baa2, leaving it barely above junk status. No need to rattle through the rationale, let's cut straight to the chase: is Mario Monti's government at risk of facing a buyer's strike when it goes to market?

Let's continue connecting the dots back to Canada. Mark Carney's central bank faces big decisions next week. We need to set expectations.

A highlight of BNN's programming today will be David Darst. Morgan Stanley Smith Barney's chief investment strategist sits down for a long chat on Business Day.

Also ahead, we've got U.S. consumer sentiment at 9:55 a.m. ET, Dell's annual meeting at 9, and a speech from the Atlanta Fed president at 1:20 p.m.

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan has hit the runway in Norway, purchasing a 75 percent stake in Helly Hansen. We need to know more about the apparel maker.

As for the frenzy in recent days about Canada's new money wilting under the blazing heat, the Bank of Canada tells us there's no evidence the polymer in your pockets can't stand up to the rigours of summer.