By David Berman
Stocks are having a tough time finding any momentum again this week, with indexes struggling on Wednesday -- just a day after U.S. stocks posted their best gains in more than a week.
U.S. stock index futures were down with about two hours before markets open, suggesting that stocks will fall at the start of trading. Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average were down 105 points or 0.9 per cent. Futures for the broader S&P 500 were down 11 points or 1 per cent.
In Europe, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was down 0.1 per cent but Germany's DAX index was up 0.6 per cent in afternoon trading. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1.1 per cent in overnight trading.
There, Moody's Investors Service cut the credit rating on Japanese government bonds by one notch, taking the rating three notches below triple-A, citing frequent government changes as an impediment to implementing long-term economic strategies. Meanwhile, Japan also created a $100-billion fund, drawn from its foreign reserves, to help ease upward pressure on the yen.
Bank of America Corp. (BAC) remains in focus, a day after the stock price fell to new lows and the cost of insuring its bonds rose above levels seen during the last financial crisis, reflecting skittishness on the part of investors. In premarket trading, the shares were down 1.4 per cent.
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