BLBG: U.S. Index Futures Decline as Technology Shares Slump
U.S. stock-index futures fell, following yesterday’s sell-off in Internet and small-cap shares, as investors assessed producer-price data before the Federal Reserve starts a two-day policy meeting.
Netflix Inc. slid 1.6 percent, poised to extend yesterday’s slide after investors sold some the bull market’s best performers. SodaStream International Ltd. rose 4.7 percent after a report that the maker of home soda machines is in talks to sell itself.
Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index expiring in December fell 0.2 percent to 1,972.6 at 8:34 a.m. in New York. Dow Jones Industrial Average contracts lost 28 points, or 0.2 percent, to 16,915 today.
“Fed interest-rate policy is the central issue for everybody,” Guillaume Duchesne, an equity strategist at BGL BNP Paribas SA in Luxembourg, said in a phone interview. “In the wake of improving economic figures, a few questions such as the timing of the next Fed action arise. The Fed is likely to have a slightly more hawkish communication.”
The S&P 500 slid 0.1 percent yesterday, while the Nasdaq Composite Index sank to near a one-month low as Internet and small-cap shares tumbled. Futures on the technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index slid 0.3 percent today.
The S&P 500 has dropped 1.2 percent from its record earlier this month as investors assess economic and inflation data for cues on the timing of an interest-rate increase.
A report today showed that the U.S. producer-price index was unchanged in August after a 0.1 percent rise the prior month.
Fed Moves
Fed officials, who start a two-day meeting today, are considering how much progress toward their goals of full employment and stable inflation would be needed to prompt the first rate increase since 2006. They will outline their outlook for the economy in quarterly projections for growth, unemployment, inflation and the benchmark federal funds rate.
Chair Janet Yellen will hold a press conference after the policy announcement on Sept. 17.
Avanir Pharmaceuticals Inc. fell 4.7 percent to $11.90. The stock soared 85 percent yesterday after saying its experimental Alzheimer’s treatment AVP-923 significantly improved agitation in 220 patients.
SodaStream rallied 4.7 percent to $32.96. The company is in talks to sell itself for $840 million to an unidentified British fund, TheMarker reported, citing people it didn’t name. The talks reflect a value of $40 a share, it said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Morgan in Frankfurt at jmorgan157@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Thomasson at lthomasson@bloomberg.net Jeremy Herron, Cecile Vannucci
