U.S. Index Futures Are Little Changed Amid Greece Bailout Talks

by Sofia Horta E Costa

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock-index futures were little changed, following a two-day decline for equities, amid bailout negotiations between Greece and its creditors.
Contracts on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index expiring in March added 0.2 percent to 2,046 at 10:34 a.m. in London. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gained 26 points, or 0.2 percent, to 17,707. The equity benchmarks fell on Monday amid concern that Greece’s rejection of the nation’s bailout terms could increase turmoil in Europe.
Greece is trying to gather support for a bridge funding plan, before Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis faces his euro-area counterparts at an emergency meeting in Brussels on Feb. 11. Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, has been unwilling to compromise on conditions attached to a Greek bailout.

“There’s a lot of noise regarding Greece and how that might provide another delay to the economic recovery,” said Signe Roed-Frederiksen, senior analyst at
Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen. In the U.S., “growth will be good in the first quarter but then will slow,” he said. “Lower oil prices will boost consumer spending, but put a stop to corporate investments. And the strong dollar weighs on exports.”
U.S. stocks rose 3 percent last week, the most in seven weeks, as oil prices rebounded. The S&P 500 fell the most in a year in January on concern slowing growth overseas will hurt the U.S. economy, while tumbling crude and a strengthening dollar weighed on earnings. The benchmark measure has climbed to within 1.5 percent of a record reached Dec. 29 on three occasions this year, before failing to hold gains.

Earnings Scorecard

Coca Cola Co., CVS Health Corp. and 16 other S&P 500 companies release quarterly results today. PepsiCo Inc., Time Warner Inc. and Kraft Foods Group Inc. follow later this week. About two-thirds of the S&P 500 companies have reported results so far, with 78 percent beating profit estimates and 55 percent topping sales projections, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Earnings rose 4.1 percent last quarter, while sales gained 1.4 percent, according to analysts’ forecasts compiled by Bloomberg. That’s up from projections at the start of the year.
Among stocks moving on corporate news, Qualcomm Inc. gained 2 percent in early New York trading after Chinese regulators ended an antitrust probe with a $975 million fine on the chipmaker. Urban Outfitters Inc. rallied 4 percent in Germany after the clothing retailer’s quarterly sales exceeded estimates.
Computer Sciences Corp., a technology consultant for governments and companies, dropped 8.4 percent after third-quarter revenue missed projections. Coupons.com Inc. slumped 30 percent as its annual sales forecast fell short of analysts’ estimates.