The cost of protecting Greek government debt from default rose to a record, Bloomberg News reported last week. According to CMA DataVision there is now a 68.5% of default. Greece's probability of default rose from 48.5% on June 15 when Moody's downgraded Greek debt to junk.

The main fear is that the imposition of austerity programs throughout the eurozone will hamper growth, especially for weaker countries like Greece. CMA estimates that holders of Greek debt could end up with only 50 cents on a dollar.

Do Hewlett Packard (HPQ) printers tell the truth or lie? Do they print out what is actually there or what we actually want to be there?

In fact, HP printers do not print out what they are given; they make the image deeper, darker and richer than it really is. I was a little surprised when I read that. When asked, HP admitted they improve the photos and they are giving the customers what they want.

Greece's ongoing debt crisis is coming to a head this week. Germany's biggest banks are proposing that they buy Greek bond debt with a guarantee from Berlin.

In the past, German banks have refused to participate in the plan. They already hold billion of euros of Greek debt. Hypo Real Estate, Eurohypo and Deutsche Postbank are among those unwilling to join. However, if Berlin sweetens the deal with guarantees, they may decide to participate. One bank official told the Financial Times last week: "This could be one of the outcomes, but it would not be a purely private solution -- there has to be government involvement if it were something on the eurozone level. I don't think my bank would say: We would not take part."

PPI came in at +0.2% and the core PPI was unchanged. This sounded good, but China put the hex on the market by curbing its overextended businesses by asking lenders to stop making loans for the rest of the month. The dollar went higher on Greek woes again, and both the Greek impact on the US dollar strength and the China news took a bite out of commodity prices.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 10,583.73 -141.70 (-1.32%)
S&P 500 1,138.04 -12.19 (-1.06%)
Nasdaq 2,291.25 -29.15 (-1.26%)

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