By Julie Cruz June 2 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock-index futures advanced before a report that may show the number of contracts to buy previously owned American homes rose in April for a third consecutive month. JPMorgan Chase & Co. rose 0.8 percent in German trading after UBS AG recommended buying the shares. American International Group Inc. slipped 0.7 percent after Prudential Plc’s $35.5 billion agreement to buy AIA Group Ltd. collapsed. Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. followed metal prices lower. June contracts on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index increased 0.3 percent to 1,073.1 as of 10:24 a.m. in London, after earlier swinging between gains and losses. The benchmark gauge for U.S. equities yesterday closed down 1.7 percent, its biggest decline in almost two weeks. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gained 0.3 percent to 10,049 and Nasdaq-100 Index futures rose 0.5 percent to 1,839.75. “The trading session in the U.S. today will very much depend on the economic data we get,” said Andreas Lipkow, an equity trader at MWB Fairtrade Wertpapierhandelsbank AG in Frankfurt. “The traded volume of U.S. futures is very low.” The index of pending home purchases climbed 5 percent in April following a 5.3 percent gain a month earlier, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of 40 economists. The report from National Association of Realtors is due at 10 a.m. in Washington. Bloomberg survey estimates ranged from a 3 percent drop to a gain of 10 percent. Sustained Recovery Sales may soften in subsequent months following the April 30 deadline to sign contracts and obtain as much as $8,000 in government assistance. Any sustained recovery in housing hinges on maintaining stability in financial markets and gains in employment in the wake of the European debt crisis. A separate report due at 7 a.m. will detail the number of mortgage applications in the U.S. last week. U.S. stocks fell yesterday, adding to losses from the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s worst May since 1940, as BP Plc’s failure to plug a leaking oil well dragged down energy producers and Agence France-Presse reported Lebanon fired on Israeli warplanes. JPMorgan, which repaid $25 billion in U.S. aid last year, rose 0.8 percent to $38.85 in Germany as the stock was raised to “buy” from “neutral” at UBS. AIG fell 0.7 percent to $34.02 in German trading. The insurer’s main Asia unit, with 20,000 agents and 23 million customers, may be too large for a rival to purchase, leaving a public offering the most likely route for divesting the business. Prudential’s agreement to buy AIA faltered after investors of the London-based firm balked at the $35.5 billion price and AIG rejected a reduced offer. Freeport, the largest publicly traded copper producer, slipped 0.6 percent to $66.10 in Germany as aluminum, copper, lead, nickel, tin and zinc all fell on the London Metal Exchange. To contact the reporter on this story: Julie Cruz in Frankfurt at jcruz6@bloomberg.net;

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