Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock-index futures retreated as the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index headed for a second straight weekly decline amid mounting evidence of an economic slowdown. Dell Inc. fell 3.2 percent in Germany after reporting second-quarter gross margin that fell short of analysts’ projections. Alcoa Inc., the largest U.S. aluminum producer, followed metal prices lower. Intuit Inc., the world’s biggest provider of tax and personal-finance software, jumped 3.5 percent after its annual forecast topped estimates and the company announced plans for a $2 billion stock buyback. September contracts on the S&P 500 fell 0.6 percent to 1,065 as of 11:34 a.m. in London. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slipped 0.6 percent to 10,179 and Nasdaq-100 Index futures declined 0.5 percent to 1,811.25. “Corporate earnings this quarter were good but macroeconomic data coming from the U.S. are negative,” said Jens Finkbeiner, who oversees about $190 million at F+M Financial GmbH in Frankfurt. “I don’t think we’ll see a double dip but we are in a correction phase. There’s no reason for the market to go up at the moment.” U.S. stocks retreated yesterday, with benchmark indexes closing at the lowest levels in a month, as jobless claims increased to the highest level since November and an index of Philadelphia-area manufacturing fell. The S&P 500 has fallen 0.3 percent so far this week as signs the economic rebound is stalling overshadowed better-than-estimated earnings growth. Dell Declines Dell lost 3.2 percent to $11.65 in German trading. The world’s third-largest personal-computer maker reported gross margin excluding some items, a measure of profitability, was 17.2 percent in the second quarter. That missed the average 18 percent predicted by analysts, according to Ashok Kumar, an analyst at Rodman & Renshaw LLC in New York. Alcoa slipped 1.3 percent to $10.52 as aluminum, copper, lead, nickel, tin and zinc all retreated on the London Metal Exchange. Exxon Mobil Corp., the biggest U.S. oil company, retreated 1.1 percent to $58.66, while ConocoPhillips, the region’s third- largest, fell 0.8 percent to $54.29. Crude for next-month delivery lost 75 cents, or 1 percent, to $73.68 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, as of 10:53 a.m. London time. That’s the lowest price since July 7. Intuit, Tyco Intuit soared 3.5 percent to $40.14 in Germany. Sales will grow at least 8 percent to $3.74 billion in the next fiscal year, which ends July 31, 2011, the Mountain View, California- based company said. Excluding some costs, earnings will grow at least 12 percent to $2.36 a share. Analysts had estimated revenue of $3.72 billion and profit of $2.30 on average, according to a Bloomberg survey. Salesforce.com Inc. climbed 5.9 percent to $102.10 in Germany. The world’s largest seller of online customer- management software beat analysts’ sales and profit estimates for the second quarter after signing up new customers and persuading current ones to add subscriptions. Tyco International Ltd. rallied 5 percent to $38.58 in after-hours New York trading after S&P said the world’s largest maker of security systems will replace Smith International Inc. in the benchmark S&P 500 at the close of trading on Aug. 26 as Schlumberger Ltd. completes its purchase of the oil-services company. Tyco shares didn’t trade in Europe. --Editors: Andrew Rummer, David Merritt. To contact the reporter on this story: Julie Cruz in Frankfurt at jcruz6@bloomberg.net; To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Merritt at dmerritt1@bloomberg.net.

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