BS: U.S. Stock Futures Decline Amid IBM Results, France Debt Concern
Oct. 18 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock futures fell, indicating the Standard & Poor's 500 Index will drop for a second straight day, as International Business Machines Corp. slumped and Moody's Investors Service signaled France's rating is at risk.
IBM slumped 4.4 percent as the biggest computer-services company missed sales estimates for the second time in nine quarters. Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. retreated 1.7 percent to pace losses among raw-material producers as China's economy grew at the slowest pace since 2009. Bank of America Corp. rallied 2.7 percent after swinging to a third-quarter profit as credit quality improved.
S&P 500 futures expiring in December slipped 0.2 percent to 1,191.40 at 8:39 a.m. New York time. The benchmark gauge declined 1.9 percent yesterday. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures declined 37 points, or 0.3 percent, to 11,264 today.
“The earnings season has been lackluster,” Michael Mullaney, who helps manage $9.5 billion at Fiduciary Trust in Boston, said in a telephone interview. “We knew about the credit situation, but it's hard to get a handle on just how deep-rooted the problem is. There are significant issues being unveiled in Europe beyond Greece. We're going to start seeing negative growth prints on a worldwide basis.”
Stocks fell yesterday, after the biggest weekly gain in the S&P 500 since 2009, as financial shares slumped and the German government damped optimism of a quick fix to Europe's debt crisis. The benchmark gauge rose last week amid optimism over corporate earnings and steps by European leaders to support the region's banks.
Global Stocks Slump
Global stocks fell today as Moody's Investors Service said France's Aaa credit rating is under pressure from deterioration in debt metrics and the potential for additional liabilities from the Europe's debt crisis. Data showed that China's economy grew 9.1 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, the slowest pace since 2009, driving stocks lower on concern that Europe's debt crisis is dragging on the global recovery.
U.S. equity futures briefly pared losses as wholesale prices rose more than forecast in September, boosted by gasoline, food and trucks. The producer price index climbed 0.8 percent, the most in five months, after no change in August, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. Economists projected a 0.2 percent gain, according to the median of 71 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey.
IBM slumped 4.4 percent to $178.40. Revenue showed slowing growth in IBM's software, hardware and services businesses. Chief Executive Officer Sam Palmisano is focusing on areas such as business analytics, emerging markets and cloud computing to boost sales amid sluggish economic expansion. The U.S. economy grew at a 1.3 percent pace in the second quarter following a 0.4 percent gain in the previous three months, the weakest performance in two years.
Bank of America rose 2.7 percent to $6.19. Chief Executive Officer Brian T. Moynihan has presided over a 55 percent drop in the stock this year. He vowed to make the lender smaller and more profitable by divesting unnecessary businesses and trimming $5 billion in costs, mostly by eliminating 30,000 jobs. He's agreed to sell almost $50 billion in assets and units since taking over as CEO last year.