By Joanna Ossinger May 26 (Bloomberg) -- Stock-index futures extended gains after orders for factory goods rose 2.9 percent in April, the Commerce Department said today, exceeding the median estimate of 1.3 percent growth in a Bloomberg survey of economists. The June contract on the S&P 500 increased 1.1 percent to 1,084.60 as of 8:31 a.m. in New York. U.S. stocks erased losses in the final minutes of trading yesterday, with the S&P 500 wiping out a 3.1 percent drop, as the gauge rebounded from its 2010 low. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gained 0.9 percent to 10,121 today. Concern the European debt crisis will spread, prompted by credit-rating downgrades of Greece, Spain and Portugal and rising bond yields, has driven the MSCI World Index down 15 percent from this year’s high. The S&P 500 has slumped 9.5 percent so far this month, on course for the biggest drop since February 2009. The number of mortgage applications in the U.S. rose last week by the most in a month as homeowners took advantage of borrowing costs close to a record low to refinance. The 11.3 percent increase in the Mortgage Bankers Association’s applications index for the week ended May 21 followed a 1.5 percent drop the previous week, the Washington- based group said today. Refinancing surged 17 percent, the most since February. Purchase applications fell to the lowest level since 1997. The U.S. economy will grow 3.2 percent in 2010 and next year instead of the 2.5 percent predicted in November, and the euro region will advance 1.2 percent compared with the previous forecast of 0.9 percent, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said today in a report. Japan’s economy will expand 3 percent instead of 1.8 percent. To contact the reporter on this story: Joanna Ossinger in New York at jossinger@bloomberg.net

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