Wall Street flat in volatile trade; JPMorgan shares up

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But shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) jumped as the bank’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, defended the intent of the portfolio behind JPMorgan’s recent multibillion-dollar trading loss, telling lawmakers it was a genuine hedge that would make the firm a lot of money if a credit crisis hit.
Weighing on the market, retail sales, excluding autos, fell in May to their worst level in two years, the latest data to point to sluggish growth. The S&P Retail Index .RLX lost 0.65 percent.
Markets have been volatile this week, with the S&P 500 moving more than 1 percent in each of the past two trading days, largely dictated by the events in the euro zone. Greece elections are scheduled for Sunday, and the outcome could mean the country embarks on a potentially destabilizing exit from the euro zone. European shares .FTEU3 were down 0.24 percent.
Investors have pushed Spain’s 10-year borrowing costs to their highest level since the launch of the euro in 1999, adding to uncertainty over the plan to bail out the country’s struggling banks.
“We don’t know what the result of the bailout will be, nor the outcome of the elections, and that uncertainty is really preventing us from rallying or from selling off,” said Randy Frederick, director of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas. “It has become very difficult to know how the market will react to anything.”