U.S. stock-index futures were little changed after a five-week rally pushed the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to a record. Yahoo! Inc. climbed 2.6 percent in premarket trading after Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. said it plans to raise as much as $21.1 billion in an initial public offering. Rackspace Hosting Inc. jumped 7.4 percent after people familiar with the matter said CenturyLink Inc. seeks to acquire the company. Ford Motor Co. slipped 2.2 percent after Morgan Stanley downgraded the shares of the automaker. Futures on the S&P 500 expiring this month retreated 0.2 percent to 2,002.9 at 7:28 a.m. in New York. The equities gauge climbed 0.2 percent last week, completing its longest streak of weekly gains this year, as investors speculated weaker jobs growth will keep the Federal Reserve from raising interest rates. The S&P 500 last month broke above 2,000 for the first time. Dow Jones Industrial Average contracts lost 28 points, or 0.2 percent, to 17,089 today. “The market is extremely strong, but for good reasons,� said Pierre Mouton, who helps oversee $8 billion at Notz, Stucki & Cie. in Geneva. “We’re seeing good earnings and still easy central-bank policy. I don’t think the improvement in the U.S. economy is fully priced into expectations. The market will not move much short term, but should start to move again when the earnings season starts.� Of the S&P 500 companies that reported results for the last quarter, 75 percent exceeded earnings estimates, while 65 percent surpassed sales projections. Alcoa Inc. reports third-quarter earnings on Oct. 8, unofficially kicking off the next season. Alibaba IPO Yahoo, which owns more than 22 percent of e-commerce company Alibaba, advanced 2.6 percent to $40.62. Alibaba plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange this month, according to a regulatory filing on Sept. 5. Yahoo will sell 121.7 million of its Alibaba shares, potentially reaping as much as $8.03 billion. Rackspace rallied 7.4 percent to $40 in premarket trading after the people said CenturyLink has discussed the idea of acquisition with the San Antonio, Texas-based company. The cloud-computing provider said last month it is conducting an internal review of its strategic options. A spokeswoman for Rackspace and a representative for CenturyLink at Joele Frank Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher declined to comment. Ford declined 2.2 percent to $16.76 after Morgan Stanley downgraded the shares to underweight, similar to sell, from overweight, similar to buy. The brokerage cited a high exposure to the U.S. market, where it said sales in the last five years were driven by pent-up demand. To contact the reporter on this story: Namitha Jagadeesh in London at njagadeesh@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Cecile Vannucci at cvannucci1@bloomberg.net Srinivasan Sivabalan

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