U.S. stock futures rose, following the biggest advance in a month for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as demand increased at Italy’s debt sale and finance ministers meet to discuss the credit crisis. Yahoo! Inc. added 1.4 percent as two people with knowledge of the matter said private-equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners is considering a bid for the Internet company. Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) gained 1.1 percent after RBC Capital Markets raised its recommendation for the computer maker. American Airlines parent AMR Corp. (AMR) tumbled 37 percent after filing for bankruptcy. S&P 500 futures expiring in December added 0.5 percent to 1,196.50 at 8:19 a.m. New York time. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gained 39 points, or 0.3 percent, to 11,537. “Gains in stocks have to do with the fact that the Italian bond auction went well and was covered more than one time, even though the auction was done at high rates,� said Stephane Ekolo, chief European strategist at Market Securities in London. The S&P 500 yesterday snapped a seven-day decline amid speculation European leaders will boost efforts to end the debt crisis. The benchmark gauge for American equities was still down 4.9 percent so far in November through yesterday as a measure of financial shares tumbled 10 percent. Demand for Italy’s 2014 bonds was 1.5 times the amount on offer, up from 1.35 times at the previous auction. The country sold 7.5 billion euros ($10 billion) of debt. Finance ministers are meeting to thrash out details on how to boost the European Financial Stability Facility. The European Central Bank failed to fully offset the extra liquidity created by its bond purchases for the first time in seven months, a sign of mounting tensions among euro-area banks. Economic Data Home prices in 20 U.S. cities probably fell at a slower pace and consumer confidence rose from a two-year low, showing the economy is stabilizing, economists said before reports today. Yahoo gained 1.4 percent to $15.56. Thomas H. Lee Partners joins a growing list of companies that are sizing up offers for Yahoo. Private-equity firm Silver Lake is working with Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) to bid for a minority stake in Yahoo, two other people familiar with the matter said. Andreessen Horowitz, a venture- capital firm, may join the Silver Lake-led group, another person said. Hewlett-Packard added 1.1 percent to $26.83. The company was raised to “outperform� from “sector perform� at RBC Capital Markets. The 12-month share-price estimate is $32. Thailand Floods Seagate Technology Plc (STX) jumped 8.8 percent to $17.39. The company forecast higher sales than analysts had estimated, saying it withstood flooding in Thailand better than much of the disk-drive industry. AMR tumbled 37 percent to $1.02 as it filed for bankruptcy after failing to secure cost-cutting labor agreements and sitting out a round of mergers that dropped it from the world’s largest airline to No. 3 in the U.S. With the filing, American became the final large U.S. full- fare airline to seek court protection from creditors. The Fort Worth, Texas-based company, which traces its roots to 1920s air- mail operations in the Midwest, listed $24.7 billion in assets and $29.6 billion in debt in Chapter 11 papers filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. Chairman Gerard Arpey will retire and be replaced by Thomas Horton, AMR said. Tiffany & Co. (TIF), the world’s second-largest luxury jewelry retailer, slumped 6.6 percent to $68.75 after citing “weaknesses� in sales in Europe and the eastern U.S. as the holiday season began. Facebook IPO Facebook Inc. is considering raising about $10 billion in an initial public offering that would value the world’s largest social-networking site at more than $100 billion, a person with knowledge of the matter said. The company may file for the IPO before the end of the year, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private. The S&P 500 will probably be stuck in a 250-point range next year as Europe’s debt crisis offsets optimism about U.S. earnings, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. The benchmark index for U.S. equities will most likely fluctuate between 1,100 and 1,350, forming an “inside-range year� by staying roughly within the band seen this year, said Michael Krauss, JPMorgan’s New York-based head of technical research. He sees a 12 percent chance of an economic recession that would push the S&P 500 as low as 800. The odds of the index rising to 1,500 because of progress on the crisis or stimulus from central banks are 8 percent, Krauss said. “The markets now are like ships caught in the treacherously stormy seas of headline risk,� Krauss wrote in a note to clients yesterday. “It will be difficult for equities to sustain back above the 1,300-1,350 trendlines, as long as the European sovereign debt crisis and recession lurks in the background. Similarly, it will be tough to move below strong 1,075-1,100 clustered support, as long as the U.S. avoids an economic recession, earnings stay elevated, and investors remain defensively positioned.� To contact the reporter on this story: Rita Nazareth in Sao Paulo at rnazareth@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Baker at nbaker7@bloomberg.net

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