June 23 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock futures rose, indicating benchmark indexes may rebound from their worst losses in two months, as higher metals prices boosted commodity producers and investors speculated home resales increased.

Alcoa Inc., the largest U.S. aluminum producer, and Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. gained in early trading in New York with higher aluminum and copper prices. Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. climbed at least 1.7 percent before the National Association of Realtors’ report. Motorola Inc. added 3 percent as Bank of America advised buying the shares.

Futures on the S&P 500 expiring in September added 0.6 percent to 893.7 at 8:29 a.m. in New York. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures climbed 0.5 percent to 8,321. Shares in Europe advanced, while Asian stocks fell and the MSCI Emerging Markets Index extended its tumble from its 2009 peak to 10 percent.

“We have exaggerated to the downside over the last few days,” said Claudio Meiger, who manages about $100 million at Basel, Switzerland-based CIC Schweiz AG. “We’re seeing a stabilization in the housing market and the focus will now be on the U.S. consumer.”

The S&P 500 yesterday tumbled 3.1 percent, extending last week’s 2.6 percent decline as the World Bank said the recession will be deeper than previously forecast. A 40 percent rally from March 9 through June 12 left the S&P 500 valued at 14.9 times its companies’ earnings, near the highest since October. The index has since retreated 5.6 percent.

Valuation Watch

The S&P 500 traded as low as 10.1 times profit on March 9, the cheapest since 1985, after the collapse of New York-based Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the first global recession since World War II sent the benchmark index for U.S. equities to a 17-month, 57 percent decline.

U.S. wealth may take 15 years to rebound, Edmund Phelps, a professor at Columbia University and the winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize for economics, said in a Bloomberg Television interview.

The benchmark index for U.S. stock options climbed the most in nine weeks yesterday. The VIX, as the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index is known, jumped 11 percent to 31.17 and earlier reached 32.05. The index measures the cost of using options as insurance against declines in the S&P 500.

Alcoa climbed 1.5 percent to $10.02 in pre-market New York trading after slumping 8.9 percent yesterday. Freeport-McMoRan, the largest publicly traded copper producer, added 1.8 percent to $46.01. Metal prices, including copper, aluminum, zinc and lead increased on the London Metal Exchange as a weaker dollar made metals cheaper for holders of other currencies.

Housing Watch

Citigroup jumped 2 percent to $3.06. Bank of America, the lender that took $45 billion in U.S. aid, increased 1.7 percent to $12.14. A measure for financial stocks slid 6.2 percent yesterday for the biggest slump among the 10 industry groups.

Economists on average estimate that sales of existing homes climbed 3 percent to an annual pace of 4.82 million, the highest level since October, according to the survey median. Foreclosure-driven declines in property values are helping to reduce the glut of unsold houses. The report is due at 10 a.m. in Washington.

Motorola rose 3 percent to $6.21. The biggest U.S. mobile- phone maker was raised to “buy” from “neutral” at Bank of America, which said “new product news flow could drive” the share price.

Rambus Inc. tumbled 10 percent to $16.09. The memory-chip designer reduced its second-quarter revenue forecast, citing weak demand for consumer electronics.

Emerging-market shares fell after the World Bank forecast yesterday that the first global recession since World War II will be deeper than it predicted in March.

Stocks and corporate bonds rallied the past three months as lower interest rates and debt purchases by central banks spurred confidence that the world economy would recover from almost $1.5 trillion of writedowns and credit losses at financial companies.

To contact the reporters on this story: Daniela Silberstein in Zurich at dsilberstei2@bloomberg.net; Jeff Kearns in New York at jkearns3@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 23, 2009 08:31 EDT