U.S. stock-index futures climbed after the government widened its efforts to keep General Motors Corp., the nation’s largest automaker, out of bankruptcy. GM rallied 9.7 percent as the U.S. Treasury committed $6 billion to support the company’s financing arm, GMAC LLC. Rival Ford Motor Co. jumped 5.4 percent. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Apple Inc. climbed before a report today that may show consumer confidence in the world’s largest economy improved in December for a second month. S&P 500 futures advanced 5.4 points, or 0.6 percent, to 875.8 at 8:27 a.m. in New York. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gained 0.4 percent to 8,522. Nasdaq-100 index futures rose 0.8 percent to 1,184.5. The benchmark S&P 500 Index has plunged 41 percent in 2008, poised for its worst year since 1931, as the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression dragged the U.S., Europe and Japan into the first simultaneous recessions since World War II. “Preemptive measures taken by the authorities should see the U.S. economy turn around faster than elsewhere,” said Henk Potts, a London-based fund manager at Barclays Stockbrokers, which has about $45 billion under management. “Authorities have been willing to use every weapon in their arsenal to fend off the worst effects of the recession. Investors should be reassured by the fact that they are able to do that.” U.S. stocks fell yesterday, ending the first two-day rally in three weeks, after funding for Dow Chemical Co.’s purchase of Rohm & Haas Co. fell through. GMAC Stake GM shares jumped 35 cents to $3.95. The U.S. Treasury yesterday said it will purchase a $5 billion stake in GMAC and lend $1 billion to GM so the automaker can contribute to the financing arm’s reorganization as a bank holding company. The loan is in addition to $13.4 billion the Treasury agreed earlier this month to lend to GM and Chrysler LLC. Ford, the nation’s second-largest automaker, added 12 cents to $2.34. Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index rose 1.3 percent, after gains by carmakers helped trim the worst annual decline on record for the regional benchmark. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed 0.6 percent. Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, gained 34 cents to $55.45. Apple, the maker of iPods and Macintosh computers, rose 1.1 percent to $87.60. The New York-based Conference Board’s index of consumer confidence probably rose to 45.5 this month, aided by falling gasoline prices, according to the median forecast of 50 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. That compares to a reading of 44.9 in November. The report is due at 10 a.m. in New York. A separate economic report scheduled for release today may show home prices in 20 major U.S. cities dropped 17.9 percent in the year ended in October, according to the survey median. The decline in the S&P/Case-Shiller index would be the biggest since records began in 2001.

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