BLBG:U.S. Stock Futures Gain as Investors Await Jobs Data
U.S. stock futures rose, indicating the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will climb for a fourth day, as investors awaited reports on employment in the world’s biggest economy.
Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and Citigroup Inc. (C) gained more than 0.8 percent to pace advances among financial shares. Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) decreased 3.7 percent after the stock was downgraded by Robert W. Baird & Co.
S&P 500 futures expiring in December increased 0.4 percent to 1,450.6 at 8:07 a.m. in New York. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures expiring the same month rose 44 points, or 0.3 percent, to 13,470.
“Investors want more details on the ECB’s outright monetary transactions,” said Manish Singh, the head of investment at Crossbridge Capital in London, which manages more than $2 billion. “The tape remains the same as investors still feel a Spanish bailout is happening sooner rather than later; so a market selloff isn’t gaining traction, which is a good sign heading into the fourth quarter.”
The European Central Bank kept interest rates on hold as President Mario Draghi waits for Spain to decide if it needs his help. Policy makers meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia, left the benchmark rate at a historic low of 0.75 percent, as predicted by 48 of 52 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. The Bank of England left its bond-purchase target at 375 billion pounds ($604 billion), as forecast by all 40 economists in a Bloomberg News survey.
Jobs Report
The S&P 500 rose for a third day yesterday after ADP Employer Services said companies added 162,000 jobs last month, exceeding economists’ estimates. The release came two days before a government jobs report. Economists forecast that the Labor Department’s release will show that the economy created 115,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate increased to 8.2 percent from 8.1 percent.
A release at 8:30 a.m. in Washington today will show initial jobless claims rose to 370,000 last week from 359,000 in the previous week, according to economists’ estimates. Another release today may show factory orders declined 5.9 percent in August, after increasing 2.8 percent in July, economists surveyed by Bloomberg said.
The Federal Open Market Committee will release the minutes of its latest policy meeting at 2 p.m.
Financial shares rose. Bank of America added 1 percent to $9.20, while Citigroup gained 0.8 percent to $34.32.
American International Group Inc. (AIG) rose 0.5 percent to $34.39. Daniel Loeb’s $9.3 billion Third Point LLC hedge fund added shares last quarter, betting the stock will rise as the U.S. cuts a stake acquired in the insurer’s rescue. AIG shares have “significant upside,” the New York-based fund said in a letter to investors.
Sprint Nextel decreased 3.7 percent to $5.01. The third- largest U.S. wireless carrier was downgraded to underperform from neutral at Robert W. Baird.
To contact the reporters on this story: Adria Cimino in Paris at acimino1@bloomberg.net; Corinne Gretler in Zurich at cgretler1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Lynn Thomasson at lthomasson@bloomberg.net
