Henry Blodget

The judge in the J.C. Penney and Macy's case says J.C. Penney will be allowed to sell nonbranded Martha Stewart products for now. Check out this video from CNBC for more analysis of the case. 

J.C. Penney, the storied if unglamorous retailer, is in trouble. Big trouble. Fourth-quarter earnings came out last Wednesday and they were terrible. The bad news starts with a quarterly loss of $427 million, but it doesn't end there. Comparable store sales — i.e., stores that were open this past quarter and also open in the same quarter of the previous year — fell by a mind-boggling 32 percent. Henry Blodget says it may have been the worst quarter posted by any retailer ever.