A day after the market got crushed on negative global economic data, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEX: ^DJI) hopes bounce back before heading into the weekend. Dow futures were headed up before the bell, despite Moody's announcing that it was downgrading a host of domestic and international banks after markets closed yesterday. Citing "significant exposure to the volatility and risk of outsized losses inherent in capital markets," the agency lowered the ratings of Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), and 13 other major financial institutions. Moody's believes that the current market volatility will make it harder for the banks to pay back their debts, but investors appeared to have already priced in the downgrade, which Moody's telegraphed back in February.
Overnight markets fell in Asia, and the FTSE and DAX were down about 1% in Europe. A key German economic indicator fell by 1.6 points earlier today, coming in below market expectations. At the G20 Summit, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has come under criticism for not grasping the severity of his country's financial situation or responding to it appropriately.
Rumors are swirling that Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) CEO Larry Page may be suffering from serious health problems. Page was not at his company's shareholder meeting this week, and Google has said that he would not be at next week's I/O developer conference or available for its earnings call, which sparked concern because the quarterly report is still a few weeks away. The company had previously said Page was suffering from a voice condition and couldn't speak at the shareholder meeting. Shares of the search engine are down about 15% in the last three months.
While Dow futures may be headed north right now, I'd expect any recovery today to be a tepid one. Yesterday's negative economic news still lingers, and little has changed to restore confidence that Europe can overcome its debt crisis. With no economic reports scheduled today, there is little reason to see why market winds would change.
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