U.S. Stock Futures Slide; Freeport, Exxon, Kellogg Shares Drop

By Adria Cimino and Eric Martin

Nov. 18 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock-index futures fell, pointing to a third straight day of losses for the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, as concern deepened that the global economic slump will hurt earnings.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., the world's second- largest producer of copper, dropped 1.3 percent and Exxon Mobil Corp., the biggest U.S. energy company, declined 1.2 percent on lower prices for metals and oil. Kellogg Co., the biggest U.S. cereal maker, retreated 1.4 percent as UBS AG cut its recommendation on the shares because of ``consumer weakness in key economies.'' Futures pared declines after Hewlett-Packard Co., the largest personal-computer maker, posted earnings that topped analysts' estimates. Stocks in Europe and Asia fell.

Futures on the S&P 500 Index expiring in December lost 0.9 percent to 843.4 as of 8:22 a.m. in New York after earlier retreating 2.6 percent. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slid 0.5 percent to 8,222 and Nasdaq-100 Index futures sank 0.5 percent to 1,153.25.

``The market remains volatile,'' said Chicuong Dang, an equity analyst at KBL Richelieu Gestion in Paris, which oversees about $5.1 billion. ``Earnings are disappointing. We lack visibility on 2009. There are still worries of a recession that will be stronger than expected,'' he told Bloomberg Television.

U.S. stocks yesterday tumbled for a second day as a record contraction in New York manufacturing and Citigroup Inc.'s plan to cut 52,000 jobs spurred concern the recession will deepen. The S&P 500 is down 42 percent so far this year as credit losses and writedowns at financial firms worldwide topped $960 billion. That would be the gauge's steepest annual decline since 1931.

Earnings Watch

Profits slumped 17 percent on average at companies in the S&P 500 that have reported third-quarter results, according to Bloomberg data. Analysts expect an 8.5 percent drop in full-year earnings, based on estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Freeport decreased 30 cents to $22.84 and Exxon lost 38 cents to $73 as oil and copper retreated.

Kellogg slid 2 percent to $45.40. The shares were downgraded to ``neutral'' from ``buy'' at UBS, which cited consumer weakness ``combined with local currency weakness against the U.S. dollar.''

Target Corp., the second-largest U.S. discounter, lost 5.3 percent to $30.01. Merrill Lynch & Co. analysts cut their price estimate for the stock 13 percent to $35.

Prices paid to U.S. producers probably fell in October by the most on record as weakening global growth caused demand for commodities to dry up, economists said before a report today. The Labor Department figures are due at 8:30 a.m.

Yahoo, Electronic Arts

Yahoo! Inc. jumped 10 percent to $11.74 after Chief Executive Officer Jerry Yang agreed to step down, opening the door for a fresh bid from Microsoft Corp.

The company's market value has dropped by more than $20 billion since Yang took over as CEO in June 2007 as discussions with Microsoft ended in failure, an ad partnership with Google Inc. was derailed and talks with Time Warner Inc.'s AOL stalled. Yahoo ``might be worth $21'' a share to an acquirer, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said.

Home Depot Inc., the world's largest home-improvement retailer, added 1.2 percent to $20.24 after profit declined less than analysts estimated and the company repeated its earnings forecast for the year.

To contact the reporters on this story: Adria Cimino in Paris at acimino1@bloomberg.net; Eric Martin in New York at emartin21@bloomberg.net.