U.S. stock futures rose, indicating the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will extend yesterday’s rally, as speculation mounted that euro-area leaders will act to safeguard banks from the region’s debt crisis. Yahoo! Inc. climbed 2.7 percent in early New York trading after a report that the company is preparing to send financial information to potential buyers. Alcoa Inc. (AA), the country’s biggest aluminum producer, and Walt Disney Co. (DIS) also advanced. S&P 500 futures expiring in December rose 0.8 percent to 1,122.6 at 7:13 a.m. in New York. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures jumped 73 points, or 0.7 percent, to 10,756. Stocks reversed losses in the final hour of trading yesterday after a report in the Financial Times quoted Olli Rehn, European commissioner for economic affairs, as saying there is an “increasingly shared view” that the region needs a coordinated approach to halt the sovereign-debt crisis. “There are encouraging things in the pipeline,” said Yves Marcais, a sales trader at Global Equities in Paris. “There is more optimism today. We have the recognition that there are uncertainties on the financial sector and if we act to help them, we recreate confidence.” Moody’s Investors Service cut Italy’s credit rating after the close of U.S. trading. The downgrade, the first in almost two decades, came on concern Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government will fail to cut the region’s second-largest debt amid weak growth. Italy Debt Downgrade Moody’s lowered Italy’s rating three levels to A2 from Aa2, with a negative outlook, the New York-based company said in a statement yesterday. The action followed a ratings cut by S&P on Sept. 20. U.S. stocks rallied yesterday, driving the S&P 500 up 4.1 percent in the final 50 minutes of trading. The index earlier plunged 2.2 percent, to a level that marked more than a 20 percent drop from the gauge’s April peak, the threshold of a bear market. Concern governments may be running out of tools to keep the global economic slowdown from worsening has left equity benchmarks from Sao Paulo to Hong Kong and Frankfurt in bear markets. A report due at 10 a.m. New York time may show that service industries in the U.S. expanded in September at a slower pace, showing the recovery is struggling to gain speed, economists said. Service Industries, Payrolls The Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing index fell to 52.8 from 53.3 in August, according to the median estimate of 75 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. A reading of 50 is the dividing line between expansion and contraction in services, the largest part of the economy. A report at 8:15 a.m. from ADP Employer Services may show companies added an estimated 73,000 workers to payrolls in September after a 91,000 gain in August, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey. Yahoo gained 2.7 percent to $14.85 in New York. The most- visited U.S. Web portal will send financial information to potential buyers in “the coming days,” the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Alcoa climbed 0.9 percent to $9.20 in German trading, reversing earlier losses. Disney increased 1.4 percent to $30.27 in New York. To contact the reporter on this story: Adria Cimino in Paris at acimino1@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Rummer at arummer@bloomberg.net.

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