Stocks Brace for Another Pullback

Investors looking for some relief today are out of luck.

The U.S. major averages are down sharply once again Monday morning, after losing ground last week for the second week in a row.  Giving back 218 points last week, it was the Dow’s worst week of the year. Dow futures are off 91 points.

The financials were crushed Friday, in the wake of the announced $2 billion loss from JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM). More than $14 billion in stock market value was wiped off JPMorgan Friday, as the Dow component gave back better than 9%.

Three top executives involved with the hedging strategy that cost JPMorgan billions are expected to leave the bank this week. One of them is Ina Drew, its New York based chief investment officer, who raked in more than $15 million last year. Two of her subordinates are also expected to leave.

Yahoo’s (NASDAQ:YHOO) CEO of just four months, Scott Thompson, has resigned. Over the weekend, Thompson told Yahoo’s board of directors that he has thyroid cancer. The timing is ironic: news broke days ago that Thompson fudged his resume, saying he had a computer science degree from Stonehill College when he did not. The man who discovered Thompson’s lie, hedge fund activist David Loeb, gets a seat on Yahoo’s board of directors.

Today is Mark Zuckerberg’s 28th birthday, but he’s waiting until Friday for his present. That’s when Facebook will begin trading on the Nasdaq and the IPO could fetch $100 billion. For some perspective: at 28, Zuckerberg is exactly half the age of the average S&P 500 CEO, and has one year more experience, according to executive search firm Spencer Stuart.