US stock-index futures climb
Tuesday, 5 May 2009
NEW YORK, May 4 (Bloomberg): US stock futures gained, following the Standard & Poor's 500 Index's biggest monthly advance in nine years, as higher commodity prices lifted basic-resource producers.
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., Alcoa Inc. and Exxon Mobil Corp. all rose in European trading as gold snapped a two- day drop, copper and zinc futures jumped by the daily limit in Shanghai and crude oil traded near a five-week high. General Motors Corp. rallied 5 per cent as people familiar with the matter said Fiat SpA may seek to buy the automaker's operations in Latin America, China and Russia. Investors will also watch reports on pending home sales and construction spending today.
Futures on the S&P 500 expiring in June added 0.8 per cent to 883.20 as of 5:52 a.m. in New York. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures increased 0.8 percent to 8,242. Nasdaq-100 futures advanced 0.8 per cent to 1,409.25. Stocks in Europe and Asia climbed as manufacturing in China expanded for the first time in nine months.
"We can't talk about a recovery in economic growth quite yet, given there aren't many signs of that, but it does seem that the recession isn't going to get worse," said Juan Jose Figares, chief analyst at Link Securities in Madrid. "It seems that actions of the central banks and governments in supporting the banking system have prevented the recession from becoming a depression."
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., Alcoa Inc. and Exxon Mobil Corp. all rose in European trading as gold snapped a two- day drop, copper and zinc futures jumped by the daily limit in Shanghai and crude oil traded near a five-week high. General Motors Corp. rallied 5 per cent as people familiar with the matter said Fiat SpA may seek to buy the automaker's operations in Latin America, China and Russia. Investors will also watch reports on pending home sales and construction spending today.
Futures on the S&P 500 expiring in June added 0.8 per cent to 883.20 as of 5:52 a.m. in New York. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures increased 0.8 percent to 8,242. Nasdaq-100 futures advanced 0.8 per cent to 1,409.25. Stocks in Europe and Asia climbed as manufacturing in China expanded for the first time in nine months.
"We can't talk about a recovery in economic growth quite yet, given there aren't many signs of that, but it does seem that the recession isn't going to get worse," said Juan Jose Figares, chief analyst at Link Securities in Madrid. "It seems that actions of the central banks and governments in supporting the banking system have prevented the recession from becoming a depression."