S&P 500 Futures Fall on Google, IBM Sales as Dollar Drop
New York (Apr 17) Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures were little changed, paring earlier losses as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. posted earnings that beat estimates. The dollar weakened against most of its Group of 10 peers.
S&P 500 futures slipped less than 0.1 percent at 7:47 a.m. in New York. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index declined 0.1 percent. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index dropped 0.1 percent, its first decline in five days, after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said yesterday the central bank has a “continuing commitment” to support the economy. The pound climbed to $1.6837, the highest level since November 2009. Wheat jumped as much as 1.4 percent and soybeans rose to a 10-month high.
Morgan Stanley profit rose amid a surprise jump in fixed-income results and Goldman’s banking revenue climbed to the highest level since the financial crisis. U.S. equity-index futures fell earlier after sales by Google Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. missed forecasts. Ukrainian forces killed three pro-Russian militants after an attack on a national guard base in the country’s east as U.S. officials and their European allies sat down with Ukraine and Russia to discuss the crisis.
“After a solid day for risk yesterday, we have a more cautious tone” before a long weekend, Jim Reid, a strategist at Deutsche Bank AG in London, said in a report. “Earnings had a more negative tone highlighted by Google and IBM’s after-market earnings misses” yesterday, he said.
Google Falls
Financial markets in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand are among those that will be closed for a holiday tomorrow.
Morgan Stanley rose 2.7 percent in pre-market trading and Goldman gained 2.1 percent. Google dropped 2.8 percent and IBM lost 4 percent. The S&P 500 gained for three straight days, bringing this week’s increase to 2.6 percent, the most since July.
Jobless claims in the U.S. probably rose to 315,000 in the week ended April 12 from 300,000 in the earlier period, the median economist forecast in a Bloomberg News survey shows. The Labor Department report is due at 8:30 a.m. in Washington.
Ten of the 19 industry groups in the Stoxx 600 declined, with trading volumes 15 percent lower than the 30-day average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The gauge jumped the most in more than a month yesterday and is 0.4 percent higher this week.
