MINYANVILLE ORIGINAL The three most active funds and stocks in pre-market trading on the NYSE were SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:SPY), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), and J.C. Penney (NYSE:JCP) as of 9:25 a.m. EST.

Investors exchanged 5.53 million shares of SPDR S&P 500 ET, which was down $0.24, or 0.17%.

Investors traded 3.4 million shares of Bank of America, which was down $0.08, or 0.859%. According to Bloomberg, Bank of America must face a lawsuit by the Federal Housing Finance Agency over mortgage-backed securities sold by the investment bank.

Investors also traded 3.04 million shares of J.C. Penney, which was down $2.06, or 9.50%. J.C. Penney reported a third-quarter net loss of $123 million, or $0.56 per share, compared to a loss of $143 million, or $0.67 per share, in the prior-year quarter. Analysts had expected a net loss of $0.07 per share.

(Also see Pre-Market Primer: Focus Shifts to Fiscal Cliff, and Greece Might Go Broke.)

Twitter: @ChrisWitrak