By Adam Haigh July 17 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock-index futures fell, indicating the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index may trim its biggest weekly rally since March, as General Electric Co. reported lower second-quarter profits. GE slipped 1.7 percent to $12.19. Google Inc., owner of the most popular Internet search engine, lost 3.5 percent after reporting a lower rate of revenue growth than in the previous quarter. International Business Machines Corp. rose 1.3 percent after increasing its full-year forecast. Citigroup Inc. is due to report quarterly profits before the opening of U.S. equity markets today. Bank of America Corp. earlier reported second-quarter profit that dropped less than analysts expected on gains from fees at its securities business. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index expiring in September dropped 0.5 percent to 931 at 12:34 p.m. in London. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 0.4 percent to 8,631. Nasdaq-100 Index futures sank 0.3 percent to 1,508.75. The S&P 500 has risen 7 percent this week as better-than- estimated retail sales boosted consumer shares and results at companies from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to Johnson & Johnson beat analysts’ estimates. Earnings have topped estimates by an average of 24 percent for the 28 companies in the S&P 500 that released results since July 8. Analysts estimate profits fell an average 35 percent in the second quarter and will decrease 21 percent from July through September, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The S&P 500, the benchmark index for U.S. equities, has rallied 39 percent from its 12-year low on March 9 amid speculation the economy is recovering. GE GE dropped 1.7 percent to $12.19 in pre-market trading in New York after reporting second-quarter revenue of $39.08 billion, less than analysts’ estimates of $41.95 billion. For Google “the concerns are that growth is in single digits,” said Sean Landers, head of U.S. equities at Pali International. “The earnings outlook for the banks is pretty positive. The market needs things to be no worse than feared,” he said in a Bloomberg Television interview in London. Google fell 3.5 percent to $427.28 in Germany as it reported a sales gain of 2.9 percent from a year earlier, down from growth of 6.2 percent in the first quarter. The company’s ads fetched lower prices as the recession crimped marketing budgets. IBM IBM advanced 1.3 percent to $112.11 in Germany. The world’s biggest computer-services provider was the second U.S. technology bellwether this week to post forecasts that beat estimates, following Intel Corp. on July 14, indicating they are coping with the worst economic slump in five decades. Bank of America added 0.6 percent to $13.25 in New York pre-market trading, even after the biggest U.S. lender reported profit that declined less than most analysts estimated. CIT Group Inc., the 101-year-old commercial finance company facing bankruptcy after failing to receive federal guarantees for its bonds, said it’s in talks with potential lenders to secure funding. CIT is running short of cash, and may need as much as $6 billion to avoid filing for bankruptcy protection after the U.S. wouldn’t give the firm a second bailout, according to CreditSights Inc. The shares added 20 percent to 49.38 cents in German trading after slumping 75 percent in U.S. trading yesterday. To contact the reporter on this story: Adam Haigh in London at ahaigh1@bloomberg.net.

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