U.S. Stock Futures Advance

U.S. stock futures advanced, indicating the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will snap three days of declines, ahead of a report that may show demand for new homes rose in June.

Broadcom Corp. rose 2.3 percent after it forecast third-quarter sales that may beat analysts’ estimates. Ford Motor Co. gained 2 percent. Apple Inc. fell 4.9 percent in Germany after reporting profit and sales that missed analysts’ projections. Netflix Inc. dropped 19 percent after it raised doubts about whether it can meet its user-growth targets this year.

Standard & Poor’s 500 futures expiring in September added 0.4 percent to 1,334.70 at 7:26 a.m. in New York. The benchmark gauge has declined 2.8 percent over the past three days as concern grew that Europe’s debt crisis is deepening and a Chinese central-bank adviser said growth may slow further. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 55 points to 12,579 today.

“Apple shares are set to face a significant amount of pressure after the tech giant missed on earnings estimates.”Ishaq Siddiqi, a market strategist at ETX Capital in London, wrote in a note. “The major and only highlight on today’s U.S. macro menu will be new home sales data.”

Demand for new U.S. homes probably climbed in June to the highest level in two years, economists’ project a report today will show. Purchases rose to a 371,000 annual rate, the most since April 2010 and up 0.4 percent from the prior month, according to the median forecast of 74 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

The Spanish government today denied an El Economista report that Germany is urging the Mediterranean nation to request a 300 billion-euro ($363 billion) bailout package that would erase the need to sell debt to investors for as many as two years. Yields on Spain’s two-, five-, 10- and 30-year securities were above 7 percent while Italy’s 30-year bond yield climbed to 7 percent for the first time since January.

German business confidence fell more than economists forecast in July to the lowest in more than two years as the worsening sovereign debt crisis damped the outlook for economic growth and company earnings.

The Ifo institute in Munich said its business climate index, based on a survey of 7,000 executives, dropped to 103.3 from 105.2 in June. That’s the third straight decline and the lowest reading since March 2010. Economists predicted a retreat to 104.5, according to the median of 35 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey.

Broadcom rose 2.3 percent to $31.49 in German trading. The maker of chips that help mobile devices connect to the Internet forecast third-quarter sales that may exceed some analysts’estimates, helped by strong demand from its smartphone customers.

Third-quarter revenue will be $2 billion to $2.15 billion, the Irvine, California-based company said yesterday in a statement. Analysts on average estimated sales of $2.11 billion according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Ford rose 2 percent to $9.24 in Germany after it reported its 13th consecutive profitable quarter, with net income of $1.04 billion, or 26 cents a share, compared with $2.4 billion, or 59 cents, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, the profit was 30 cents a share, beating the 29-cent average estimate of 17 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Eli Lilly & Co. gained 2.6 percent to $43.09 in Germany after the company reported second-quarter profit that fell less than analyst estimates as generic competition slashed sales for the company’s once-top selling schizophrenia treatment Zyprexa.

Apple, the world’s largest company by market value, lost 4.9 percent to $571.55 in Germany. Profit and sales fell short of analysts’ projections for only the second time since 2003 as customers held off on iPhone purchases while waiting for a new model to be introduced later in the year.

Net income climbed 21 percent to $8.82 billion, or $9.32 a share, in the period that ended June 30, Cupertino, California-based Apple said. Sales rose 23 percent to $35 billion. Analysts had predicted profit of $10.37 a share on revenue of $37.2 billion, the average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Netflix tumbled 19 percent to $65.36 in Germany. The world’s largest video-subscription service raised doubts about whether the company can meet its user growth targets this year.

The summer Olympics are likely to hamper efforts to sign up new customers, Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings said yesterday in his quarterly letter to investors. The full year goal of adding 7 million new U.S. users will be “challenging” if this quarter’s most optimistic targets aren’t met, he said.

Source:Bloomberg