U.S. stock-index futures declined, after seven days of gains for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as investors awaited data on initial jobless claims to gauge the outlook for Federal Reserve stimulus. Facebook Inc. (FB) rose 2.1 percent in pre-market trading in New York after the owner of the world’s largest social network rallied to all-time high yesterday. Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX) followed the precious metal lower. Futures on the S&P 500 (SPX) expiring this month dropped 0.1 percent to 1,686.4 at 10:50 a.m. in London. Contracts on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, also expiring in September, slipped 15 points, or 0.1 percent, to 15,315. “The sense is that the U.S. economy is not sufficiently strong to favor an immediate taper,� Jeremy Batstone-Carr, head of research at Charles Stanley Group Plc in London, said in a telephone interview. “We are in for a comparatively quiet session after a recent sharp reduction in levels of volatility as investors eye a new all-time high in U.S. equities.� The CBOE Volatility Index, the gauge of S&P 500 options prices known as the VIX, has tumbled 13 percent so far this week. The index moves in the opposite direction to the S&P 500 about 80 percent of the time. A report at 8:30 a.m. in Washington may show initial claims for jobless benefits increased to 330,000 last week from 323,000 in the previous period, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists. Fed Policy U.S. central bankers are debating how and when to pare their $85 billion in monthly bond purchases as the U.S. economy improves and unemployment declines. The Federal Open Market Committee will meet Sept. 17-18 to consider the future for the third round of quantitative easing known as QE3. Facebook gained 2.1 percent to $46. The stock yesterday advanced 3.3 percent to $45.04, a record close that also surpassed the intraday high of $45 on the stock’s first public trading day in May 2012. Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRTX), a developer of small-molecule pharmaceuticals, and Ametek Inc. (AME) a manufacturer of electronic instruments, may be active. S&P Dow Jones Indices said the two companies will join the S&P 500, replacing Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and SAIC Inc. Barrick Gold, the largest miner of the metal, slipped 3.3 percent to $18.03 in early New York trading as gold dropped 1.8 percent to its lowest price since Aug. 15. Visa Inc. (V) and MasterCard Inc. (MA) may move. A judge will today consider a settlement over antitrust allegations involving fees paid by U.S. merchants to support the credit card networks. To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Morgan in Frankfurt at jmorgan157@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Rummer at arummer@bloomberg.net

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