Hello from New York where I just finished taping an episode of The Big Idea. What's today's burst of inspiration, you ask? Merging the Retail Round-Up with my more run-of-the-mill column observations. You want a one word summary of the results? I'm sticking with "uninspiring."

Here's the most interesting results from the retailers and the other stuff I'm noting as I
whip through a crazy Thursday:
 

• I talked myself into selling Wal-Mart (WMT) as it runs into long-term technical resistance on last night's Fast Money. That would seem to be a good example of a conversation I shoulda found time for a bit earlier. 
  
  
• Target's (TGT) miss was more concerning, on a company-specific level. Minnesota's finest has hit the wall over the last year for a bunch of reasons seemingly boiling down to "mojo."
  
  
• In terms of my short book, Toyota (TM) is holding up okay despite a lousy earnings
  report. I respect the response but I'm pretty confident of the bearish case for TM.
  
  
• Speaking of reacting well to unsolvable ills: Can any sell-off in the financials really
  ever be thought of as a surprise? "Trading Vehicles" and, from where I'm sitting, they seem more of a sell than a buy at this point in the range. 
  
  
• Emerging markets continue to be miserable with today's excuse being a strong dollar. The EEM and FXI ETFs look to be cruising for a continued bruising.