U.S. stocks are seeing indecisive directional trading today as Moody’s Investor Services said that it may cut its rating on some of the biggest financial stocks on Wall Street. Banks like Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C) and even Wells Fargo (WFC) are all trading higher despite the fact that their debt ratings could be reduced. A lowered rating could re-open a can of worms of whether or not these banks, which received huge bailout sums from Congress and the U.S. Treasury not too long ago, are indeed healthy. Despite a consistent string of disappointing economic data, Wall Street investors are starting to shift their attention to key technical levels on major indices like the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 as yesterday’s major sell-off could not have just been caused by fundamentals. Oil prices have again fallen down below $100 a barrel as U.S. supplies rose last week. Gold prices took a dip to $1,523 an ounce and silver stays on its downtrend.

Major U.S. Stock Indices

DJIA: 12,256.04 (-0.28 percent)
S&P 500: 1,312.08 (-0.19 percent)
NASDAQ: 2,770.31 (+0.04 percent)
Russell 2000: 821.38 (0.00 percent)

In other news:

  • The relationship between the Chinese government and Google (GOOG) gets even testier. [WSJ]
  • Goldman Sachs (GS) is being subpoenaed by the Manhattan district attorney for possibly misleading clients during the financial crisis. [NY Times]
  • Education continues to be quite the racket. For-profit stocks like Corinthian Colleges (COCO), Apollo Group (APOL), Strayer (STRA) and ITT Educational Services (ESI) get a nice boost on lenient rules released by the Department of Education. [Marketwatch]
  • Commodities gave banks like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley (MS) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) a nice boost in the first quarter. [WSJ]
  • Investing in corporate bonds. The top 10 ETFs and their pros and cons. [The Street]

Check back for more news.