BLBG: U.S. Stock Futures Decline After S&P 500 Reaches Record
U.S. stock-index futures retreated, after equity benchmarks closed at record highs last week, as Tyson Foods Inc. and Neustar Inc. dropped.
Tyson declined 2.2 percent in German trading after the largest U.S. meat producer was said to agree to buy Hillshire Brands Co. Neustar fell 6.9 percent after saying that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has been urged to shift a contract it holds to rival Ericsson AB. Family Dollar Stores Inc. jumped 10 percent after a filing showed billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn has amassed a 9.4 percent stake.
Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) expiring this month fell 0.1 percent to 1,947.3 at 6:08 a.m. in New York. The S&P 500 advanced 1.3 percent to a record 1,949.44 last week as the European Central Bank cut interest rates and a report showed that the U.S. economy created more jobs than expected. Dow Jones Industrial Average contracts lost 11 points, or 0.1 percent, to 16,921 today.
“There’s really no positive reason for buying equities; there’s just the lack of a negative reason,” said Michael Ingram, a market strategist at BGC Brokers LP in London. “Because zero-interest-rate policy has gone global, equities are the least-worst option among asset classes right now.”
Japan’s economy grew at a faster-than-estimated pace in the first three months of the year. Gross domestic product expanded 1.6 percent -- an annualized rate of 6.7 percent -- beating the preliminary forecast for the quarter of 1.5 percent and the median economist projection of 1.4 percent.
Tyson Foods
Tyson lost 2.2 percent to $39.25. The food company outbid Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. to win Hillshire, the maker of Jimmy Dean sausages and Ball Park hot dogs, people with knowledge of the matter said. Tyson is expected to pay $63 a share in cash for Hillshire, the New York Times reported. That would value the company at $7.8 billion, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Neustar fell 6.9 percent to $24.83 in late New York trading on June 6. An e-mail marked confidential that was posted briefly on June 6 on the FCC website showed that the agency was asked to allow time to negotiate final terms with Ericsson for the phone-numbers management contract. The agency has yet to award the new five-year contract for telephone-number switching, a service that Neustar has handled since 1997.
Family Dollar jumped 10 percent to $66.68 in late New York trading. Icahn and his affiliates bought 10.7 million shares and options for about $265.8 million, according to a a filing posted after the close of trading on June 6. He may push for operating changes and ask the company to explore strategic alternatives, as well as potentially seeking board seats, according to the filing.
To contact the reporter on this story: Trista Kelley in London at tkelley2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Cecile Vannucci at cvannucci1@bloomberg.net Will Hadfield