U.S. Stock-Index Futures Fluctuate; Collective Brands Retreats
U.S. stock-index futures fluctuated, after the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index posted its biggest gain since July 7, as investors awaited reports that may show a drop in home sales and a rise in jobless claims.
Collective Brands Inc. sank 7.3 percent after the owner of Payless ShoeSource discount footwear stores reported second- quarter earnings and sales that missed analysts’ estimates. Costco Wholesale Corp., the largest warehouse club chain in the U.S., will probably move after sales in August climbed 9 percent.
Futures on the S&P 500 expiring this month slid 0.2 percent to 1,079.3 as of 6:48 a.m. in New York, after swinging between gains and losses at least four times. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures retreated 0.2 percent to 10,250 and Nasdaq-100 Index futures gained 0.1 percent to 1,817.5.
Stocks rebounded yesterday from the biggest August plunge in nine years as faster-than-estimated growth in manufacturing tempered concern that the global economy will slow as governments withdraw stimulus measures. The S&P 500 remains 11 percent below this year’s highest level in April amid concern that a slowdown in the pace of economic recovery at home and in China is harming the profitability of its companies.
“It will take more than the avoidance of a double-dip to turn the equity outflows around,” Robert Buckland, a London- based equity strategist at Citigroup Inc. wrote in a report today. “Investor appetite for global equities is falling.”
Home Sales, Jobless Claims
An index of the number of pending home resales fell 1 percent in July from June, the National Association of Realtors will reveal today, according to the median estimate of 37 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. The report is due at 10 a.m. in Washington.
Initial jobless claims increased to 475,000 last week from 473,000, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey before the Labor Department’s 8:30 a.m. release.
Collective Brands lost 7.3 percent to $12.76 in after-hours New York trading. The company reported second-quarter per-share earnings of 32 cents, missing the 45 cent average estimate of the seven analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The shares did not trade in Europe.
Costco’s sales rose 9 percent to $5.9 billion in the four weeks that ended on Aug. 29. Comparable revenue increased 7 percent during the period.
To contact the reporter on this story: Adam Haigh in London at ahaigh1@bloomberg.net.
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