BANK OF AMERICA

This week's data releases highlight Wednesday's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) statement, which will likely present a dovish tone. However, those who are expecting for the announcement of renewed asset purchases will likely be disappointed.

Are U.S. technology companies fast-growing enterprises or are they banks? In a time when banks are enduring federal ?stress tests? of their ability to withstand a crisis, the tech sector seems to be rolling in money.

U.S. investors are getting back into real estate, but their efforts are being complicated by the uncertain housing market.

EU officials have been keen to trumpet the latest euro zone Band-Aid as a triumph for collective action and an answer to critics who accused the group of acting too slowly and with not enough money in the past.

This week's data releases could reignite hopes that the Federal Reserve will soon provide more policy stimulus. May's producer price index and consumer price index should show that inflationary pressures are easing, with the latter falling below the Fed's 2 percent target rate. Retail sales and industrial production figures for May are likely to come in on the soft side, as well.

Among the companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trading Monday are: Micronetics, Banco Santander, Mellanox Technologies, NVIDIA, Bank of America, Perrigo, QUALCOMM, Jive Software and Nokia.

While the euro zone fiscal crisis has grabbed the spotlight, the U.S. faces its own fiscal crisis. The simultaneous onset of tax increases and spending cuts scheduled for Jan. 1 -- which will trigger unless Republicans and Democrats can agree on a balanced budget solution -- will likely send the economy plunging off a $720 billion fiscal cliff and into the arms of another recession.

Among the companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trading Friday are: Molina Healthcare, China TransInfo Technology, Strategic Hotels, France Telecom, Barrick Gold, Rio Tinto, Randgold Resources, Alcoa and Bank of America Corp.

Among the companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trading Thursday are: Lincoln National Corp, SINA Corp, Las Vegas Sands, Baidu.com, Bank of America, Royal Bank of Scotland, Morgan Stanley and Nokia Corp.

Fannie Mae, the federally controlled mortgage giant, said Tuesday it is appouinting its general counsel, Timothy Mayopoulos, as its new president and CEO.

The companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trading Friday are: Coca-Cola Co., Bank of America Corp., Dean Foods Co., General Electric Co., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Facebook Inc.

The economic calendar is quite full this week, with most of the focus on the U.S. nonfarm payrolls report. The Institute for Supply Management, or ISM, manufacturing index and the second estimate of U.S. first-quarter gross domestic product also will draw a lot of attention.

The Golden Gate Bridge -- across the Golden Gate Strait between San Francisco and Marin County -- was a larger-than-life engineering project undertaken against dangerous odds, and it opened 75 years ago on Sunday against vehement protest, at the cost of 11 lives.

Sam Zell, the Chicago real-estate mogul, has become so well-known for feasting on distressed assets that he's been called the grave dancer. This week, Zell took the nickname to the next level: He's about to receive $70 million from a ghost.

French and German consumer confidence showed unexpected strength, reports showed Friday. While the market is cheering about the good news, some economists view this as a warning sign of a euro zone crisis fatigue - something that is as dangerous, if not more so than the crisis itself.

Shares of Facebook (Nasdaq: FB), the No. 1 social network, fell 3.4 percent again Friday, a week after their disastrous debut in their initial public offering.

Faced with the disastrous fallout from the initial public offering of Facebook (Nasdaq: FB), the No. 1 social network, other technology companies that had been waiting to go next may reconsider.

Shares of Facebook (Nasdaq: FB), the No. 1 social network, rose $1.03 to close at $33.03 on Thursday. A week ago, they were priced at $38 for the IPO.

Facebook (Nasdaq: FB), the No. 1 social network, didn?t just set records for enriching inside investors like CEO Mark Zuckerberg, COO Sheryl Sandberg, Accel Partners and Digital Sky Technologies. Underwriters fared very well.

American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) was partially rebuffed in its effort to get $10 billion out of Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) Wednesday, as a Los Angeles U.S. district judge dismissed some of the New York re-insurer's claims in its securities lawsuit against the giant Charlotte, North Carolina- bank.

This week's economic calendar is relatively light in the U.S. with the releases of existing home sales, durable goods orders, and the University of Michigan consumer confidence survey. Attention will likely focus on data out of Europe. Euro zone PMIs, Germany IFO survey, and first-quarter gross domestic product data for the U.K. will be released.