Report: Moody's to cut top global banks Thursday

Welcome to the morning roundup. Here's a look at today's banking and finance news.

Bank downgrades. Ratings agency Moody's will announce downgrades of some top global banks later today, Reuters writes, citing a report from Sky News. Moody's has said it will release the ratings reviews -- which could result in higher funding costs for the affected banks -- by the end of June.

The Fed. The Federal Reserve has ordered another round of modest monetary stimulus, citing slow economic growth - but a Bloomberg editorial argues that a functional Congress wouldn't have to depend on such moves, saying the Fed "is stepping in largely because Congress won't."

Real estate recovery. Real estate markets around the country rose together during the boom and fell together during the bust, but now they're recovering at different speeds, the Wall Street Journal reports. Meanwhile, sales of previously owned homes probably fell in May, Bloomberg reports.

President's favorite banker? UBS executive Robert Wolf is one of President Obama's leading fund-raisers, golfs with the president and is known for e-mailing friends photos of himself and Obama. Now, that's making other executives at the bank uneasy, the New York Times reports.

Markets flat. Stocks opened flat today amid weak labor market data and an easing of Spanish bond yields, Reuters reports.