NEW YORK—U.S. stock futures are following global markets lower with one of the nation’s biggest banks falling short of profit expectations for the quarter.
Dow Jones industrial futures are down 98 points to 14,587. S&P futures have lost 12.1 points to 1,556.60. Nasdaq futures are down 22.50 points to 2,805.50.
Shares of Bank of America fell more than 3 percent before the opening bell Wednesday even though its quarterly profit climbed from a year ago.
The bank posted lower net interest income, and cited lower consumer loan balances as well as lower asset yields because of low rates. Its earnings missed Wall Street expectations.
Global markets began falling early, with some expecting that Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, could suffer a ratings downgrade soon.
“As noted yesterday we are definitely coming to terms with weaker data hitting us globally and the flight to quality continues both into names like healthcare in equity and in the bond market as I write, you see headlines about German bonds being sold with a “record” low yield once again of just 1.28 percent,” says Citigroup analyst Charlie Mansour in a note to clients. He notes that German car sales came in weak, underscoring the trend of lower growth in Europe.
He notes that defensive equities, such as health care and utilities are outperforming their more risky cyclical counterparts: “Plenty of chat on the extremity of cyclical underperformance vs defensives right now and that it is a catch up trade,” he writes.
Germany’s DAX fell 1.2 percent while France’s CAC-40 lost 1 percent.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
