U.S. stock futures fluctuated, following yesterday’s biggest drop in two weeks, amid data showing the economy grew slower than analysts’ estimated last quarter and jobless claims unexpectedly fell last week. Wells Fargo & Co. added 2.1 percent after after proposing a dividend increase. Accenture Plc gained 1.2 percent after the upper end of its quarterly revenue forecast beat analysts’ estimates. Citigroup Inc. dropped 5.9 percent after its capital plan failed Federal Reserve stress tests. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index expiring in June fell less than 0.1 percent to 1,842.20 at 8:56 a.m. in New York. Dow Jones Industrial Average contracts expiring in June lost four points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 16,175. “The numbers were neutral from an investors’ standpoint,� Cameron Hinds, the Lincoln, Nebraska-based regional chief investment officer for Wells Fargo Private Bank, which has about $170 billion under management, said by phone. “There was no huge, market-moving information. GDP was slightly below, while claims numbers were a little bit more of a positive. It looks like we’re trending in the right direction from an economic standpoint.� The S&P 500 yesterday slid 0.7 percent after President Barack Obama warned that the crisis in Ukraine may escalate. Losses extended in the last hour as investors sold companies that have led the bull market. Data Watch Data today showed applications for unemployment benefits unexpectedly declined last week to an almost four-month low, a sign companies are confident in the outlook for demand. Jobless claims decreased by 10,000 to 311,000 in the period ended March 22, Labor Department data showed today. The median forecast of 49 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for 323,000 claims. Gross domestic product grew at a 2.6 percent annualized rate from October through December, more than the 2.4 percent gain reported last month, figures from the Commerce Department showed today. The median forecast of 79 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 2.7 percent increase. A release at 10 a.m. New York time may show pending sales of residential property grew 0.2 percent last month, following a 0.1 percent gain in January, according to economists’ projections in a Bloomberg survey. Three rounds of bond purchases from the Federal Reserve have helped fuel economic growth, sending the S&P 500 surging as much as 178 percent from its 2009 low. Fed Chair Janet Yellen said on March 19 that the central bank’s monthly bond purchases could end this fall and benchmark interest rates may rise about six months later. Riskier Assets Gauges of technology stocks, drugmakers, and consumer and industrial companies all fell 0.7 percent in the final 60 minutes of trading yesterday. About half of the day’s 6.5 percent gain in the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index occurred during the period, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Investors continued to sell riskier assets, as gauges of Internet and biotechnology shares sank. The S&P 500 closed at its session low, erasing nine points in the final hour. The slide trimmed the advance this year to 0.2 percent. The Russell 2000, a gauge of smaller companies that has climbed more than 235 percent since the bull market began in 2009, slipped 1.9 percent yesterday, extending its four-day slide to 3.6 percent. “It was probably a continuation of the past few days, with investors selling off some of the winners and high fliers,� Sean Sun, an equity research analyst at Santa Fe, New Mexico-based Thornburg Investment Management Inc., which oversees $94 billion, said by phone yesterday. “It definitely feels like the markets are more volatile recently than they have been.� Stress Tests U.S. lenders announced more than $60 billion of dividends and share buybacks after the Fed approved capital plans for 25 of the 30 banks in its annual stress tests. JPMorgan Chase & Co. added 0.4 percent to $60.15 after it authorized a stock buyback of $6.5 billion and proposed to boost its quarterly dividend to 40 cents a share from 38 cents. Wells Fargo rose 2.1 percent to $49.54. The largest U.S. home lender increased its quarterly payout by 5 cents to 35 cents a share. Citigroup lost 5.9 percent to $47.22. The bank failed to win approval to raise its dividend to 5 cents a share and put in place a $6.4 billion buyback. The Fed expressed concern about the lender’s ability to project losses in parts of its global operations and to reflect all business exposures in its internal stress test. Accenture advanced 1.2 percent to $84 after the world’s second-largest technology consulting company projected revenue of $7.4 billion to $7.65 billion for the fiscal third quarter. Analysts on average had estimated $7.57 billion. It also forecast full-year revenue growth of 3 percent to 6 percent. It had previously predicted an increase of 2 percent to 6 percent. To contact the reporter on this story: Namitha Jagadeesh in London at njagadeesh@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Thomasson at lthomasson@bloomberg.net Jeremy Herron, Will Hadfield

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