U.S. stock futures fell, signaling the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will drop for a third day, as the euro area’s leaders remained divided over a bailout for Greece and Moody’s Investors Service reviewed global banks. Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) declined after Moody’s put the lenders’ ratings under review. Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) slid in German trading after forecasting first-quarter sales that missed estimates. Marriott International Inc. retreated in after-hours New York trading as fourth-quarter earnings fell from a year earlier. Futures on the S&P 500 expiring in March dropped 0.3 percent to 1,337.7 at 6:35 a.m. in New York. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures expiring the same month slipped 26 points, or 0.2 percent, to 12,737. The benchmark S&P 500 decreased 0.5 percent yesterday as concern mounted that Greece was moving closer to default. “The uncertainty about Greece will continue at least until the European Union decision on Monday,� Michael Koehler, a strategist at Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg in Stuttgart, wrote in a note today. “The review of several leading banks by Moody’s will once again increase the pressure on the financials sector.� A Commerce Department report at 8:30 a.m. in Washington may show that builders broke ground on more houses in January, indicating that the residential real-estate market is stabilizing, according to economists. Housing starts climbed 2.7 percent to a 675,000 annual rate, according to the median estimate of 79 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Building permits, a proxy for future construction, may have climbed 1.3 percent. Manufacturing in the Philadelphia area accelerated and higher fuel costs drove up a measure of wholesale prices, other releases will show, according to economists’ projections. Greek Financial Aid The euro area’s creditor countries struggled to reach an agreement over a bailout of Greece yesterday, seeking more control over how future aid is spent as the country faces possible default on a bond payment due on March 20. The 17- nation currency area’s finance ministers will discuss a second bailout on Feb. 20, said Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs meetings of the Eurogroup. Greece has made “substantial further progress� by outlining 325 million euros ($423 million) in additional savings and providing written pledges from the leaders of its two main parties not to backtrack on the budget cuts, Juncker said. Bank of America Bank of America, the second-largest U.S. lender by assets, slid 1.2 percent to $7.69 in early New York trading, while Goldman Sachs fell 1 percent to $112.03 in German trading. The U.S. financial companies were among banks and securities firms whose ratings Moody’s put under review. The company also put Morgan Stanley (MS) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) on review. Shares in Nvidia, a maker of graphics processors, dropped 6.6 percent to $15.10 in German trading after its first-quarter sales forecast missed estimates, providing more evidence that hard-disk shortages are cutting into personal-computer production. The Santa Clara, California-based company projected revenue for the period ending April 30 of $900 million to $930 million. Analysts had predicted $940.4 million on average, according to a Bloomberg survey. Marriott, the largest publicly traded U.S. hotel chain, dropped 1.4 percent to $34.25 in late trading after reporting fourth-quarter earnings that missed analysts’ estimates as demand from business groups remained weak. Net income fell to $141 million, or 41 cents a share, from $173 million, or 46 cents, a year earlier. Hyperdynamics, Blue Nile Hyperdynamics Corp. (HDY) plunged 23 percent to $1.56 in German trading. The oil and gas exploration company said analysis of its Sabu-1 well off the coast of Guinea indicated that large volumes of oil were present in the reservoirs and may have since leaked out. Blue Nile Inc. (NILE) tumbled 23 percent to $32.30 in late New York trading after the online retailer of diamonds and jewelery forecast profit in 2012 of no more than 85 cents a share, below the average analyst estimate of $1.06. NetApp Inc. (NTAP) surged 7.6 percent to $42.91 in Germany after the maker of data-storage products posted third-quarter revenue of $1.57 billion, more than the average analyst estimate of $1.56 billion. The company said it gained a record number of new customers and increased the number of units it shipped. To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Stoukas in Athens at astoukas@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Rummer at arummer@bloomberg.net

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