U.S. stock futures fell, after equities rose yesterday for the first time in three days, as energy producers slid with the price of oil and investors scrutinized jobless claims data for clues on when the Federal Reserve will start raising interest rates. Chevron Corp. slid 0.7 percent as Brent crude declined to its lowest intraday level in more than two years. Twitter Inc. slipped 1.2 percent after the microblogging-service operator said it plans to raise raise as much as $1.5 billion by selling convertible bonds. Lululemon Athletica Inc. soared 14 percent after raising its full-year forecast as quarterly profit exceeded estimates. JDS Uniphase Corp. jumped 14 percent on plans to split into two separate publicly traded entities. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index expiring this month retreated 0.4 percent to 1,987.80 at 8:37 a.m. in New York. Dow Jones Industrial Average contracts lost 61 points, or 0.4 percent, to 16,997. A report today showed the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week to a two-month high, interrupting a steady decrease to the lowest level since before the last recession. Jobless claims climbed by 11,000 to 315,000 in the week ended Sept. 6, which included the Labor Day holiday, a Labor Department report showed today in Washington. It was the highest reading since June 28 and compared with a Bloomberg survey median forecast of 300,000. The data are difficult to adjust during holiday periods, an agency spokesman said. Fed Stimulus The Fed is gauging the strength of the economy as it winds down a bond-buying program and considers raising rates. Policy officials next meet Sept. 16-17. The Fed has said that its benchmark rate would stay low for a “considerable time� after it completes the monthly bond purchases. Equity futures slid earlier today as European Union officials said new sanctions against Russia will come into force tomorrow. Ending days of wrangling, EU countries agreed to implement plans to bar some Russian state-owned defense and energy companies from raising capital in the bloc. Twitter (TWTR) retreated 1.6 percent to $52.04. The company is selling the bonds in two $650 million sections, one maturing in five years and the other in seven years, according to a regulatory filing yesterday. The offering size may rise to $1.5 billion if the banks involved exercise an over-allotment option. Lululemon soared 14 percent to $43.70. The yogawear maker that ended a dispute with its founder last month reported second-quarter profit that exceeded analyst estimates and increased its earnings forecast for the year by a penny to $1.72 to $1.77 a share. Revenue rose 13 percent to $390.7 million in the second quarter from a year earlier. JDS Uniphase jumped 14 percent to $13.79. One company will focus on optical components and commercial lasers, while the other will sell networking equipment, JDS Uniphase disclosed in a filing yesterday. To contact the reporters on this story: Jonathan Morgan in Frankfurt at jmorgan157@bloomberg.net; Callie Bost in New York at cbost2@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Cecile Vannucci at cvannucci1@bloomberg.net; Lynn Thomasson at lthomasson@bloomberg.net Jeff Sutherland

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