Wednesday, 24 September 2014

U.S. Stock-Index Futures Advance Before Home-Sales Report

U.S. stock-index futures advanced, signaling the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index may halt a three-day slump, as investors awaited data that may show new-home sales rebounded for the first time in three months.
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. rallied 6.7 percent in pre-market New York trading after posting quarterly profit and sales that topped analysts’ estimates. Avanir Pharmaceuticals Inc. may be active after saying it is raising about $200 million in a share offering. Apple Inc. may move after a report said its latest software update for iPhone and iPad is causing applications to crash more frequently.
Futures on the S&P 500 (SPX) expiring in December added 0.2 percent to 1,977 at 6:30 a.m. in New York. The equities gauge dropped
0.6 percent yesterday to a five-week low amid a government crackdown on tax-saving mergers and U.S. air strikes against Islamic State positions in Syria. Contracts on the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 37 points, or 0.2 percent, to 17,000 today.
A Commerce Department report at 10 a.m. in Washington may show new-home sales rebounded in August to a 430,000 annualized pace following two months of declines, according to economists’ estimates in a Bloomberg survey.
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. advanced 6.7 percent to $66.92. The seller of household supplies posted second-quarter profit of $1.17 a share, exceeding the $1.14 average estimate compiled by Bloomberg. Sales climbed 4.3 percent to $2.94 billion in the period that ended Aug. 30. Analysts had predicted $2.89 billion.
Avanir may be active. The maker of treatments for central-nervous-system disorders said it will sell 18.2 million shares at $11 each.
Apple may move. Apple’s iOS 8 operating-system update causes apps to crash about 3.3 percent of the time, more than last year’s version, according to a report by analytics firm Crittercism Inc. Apple shares climbed yesterday near the record $103.30 it reached on Sept. 2.

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