U.S. stock-index futures fluctuated as data showed employers added fewer workers than anticipated in July even as the U.S. jobless rate dropped to 7.4 percent, indicating uneven progress in the labor market. S&P 500 futures expiring next month fell less than 0.1 percent to 1,699.60 at 8:34 a.m. in New York, after rallying 1.3 percent yesterday. Contracts on the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 9 points, or 0.1 percent, to 15,541 today. The 162,000 increase in payrolls last month was the smallest in four months and followed a revised 188,000 rise in June that was less than initially estimated, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 93 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 185,000 gain. Workers spent fewer hours on the job and hourly earnings fell for the first time since October. The unemployment rate was forecast to drop to 7.5 percent from 7.6 percent, according to the Bloomberg survey median. The equity benchmark climbed above the 1,700 level yesterday for the first time as central banks vowed to maintain stimulus efforts and data on global manufacturing beat forecasts. The S&P 500 is trading at 15.5 times projected earnings, compared with an average of 13.9 over the last five years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Three rounds of bond purchases by the Fed, coupled with improving earnings and economic growth, has helped propel the S&P 500 up 152 percent from its bear-market low in 2009. Speculation about the Fed’s monthly bond purchases has whipsawed stocks since May, when Chairman Ben S. Bernanke first indicated policy makers could begin reducing the stimulus this year if the job market continues to improve. Stimulus Pace Fed officials said this week the labor market has shown “improvement.� The central bank may begin tapering the pace of its asset purchases in September, according to a growing number of economists surveyed by Bloomberg from July 18 to July 22. Chevron Corp. and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. are among nine S&P 500 companies reporting results today. Of the 386 companies in the gauge to have already reported quarterly earnings, 74 percent have exceeded analysts’ profit estimates and 56 percent have beaten sales projections, data compiled by Bloomberg show. To contact the reporter on this story: Sofia Horta e Costa in London at shortaecosta@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew Rummer at arummer@bloomberg.net; Lynn Thomasson at lthomasson@bloomberg.net

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