U.S. Stock Futures Fluctuate; JPMorgan Gains, Apple Retreats

By Eric Martin

Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock futures swung between gains and losses as better-than-estimated earnings at JPMorgan Chase & Co. offset reports showing declining prices and a bigger-than-forecast increase in initial jobless claims.

JPMorgan rallied 3 percent after reporting fourth-quarter net income of $702 million. General Motors Corp. and Intel Corp. led declines in Dow Jones Industrial Average stocks as producer prices capped the first annual decrease in seven years and first-time claims for unemployment benefits jumped by 54,000. Apple Inc. tumbled 5.7 percent after saying Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs will take a medical leave of absence.

Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures expiring in March retreated 0.2 percent to 838.3 as of 8:59 a.m. in New York. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures added less than 0.1 percent to 8,160 and Nasdaq-100 Index futures decreased 0.5 percent to 1,159.5.

U.S. stocks yesterday slid the most in six weeks after retail sales decreased at more than twice the rate forecast by economists. The S&P 500 has dropped 6.7 percent in 2009 as companies from Alcoa Inc. to Intel Corp. spurred concern earnings will deteriorate amid the recession, while the unemployment rate in the U.S. climbed to the highest level in almost 16 years.

Apple lost $4.88 to $80.45. Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook, who filled in during Jobs’s 2004 medical leave, has taken over Apple’s day-to-day operations, the company said. Jobs said he will remain involved in major strategic decisions.

Bank of America

Bank of America Corp. dropped 5.7 percent to $9.62 on concern the biggest U.S. bank by assets may require more aid from the government following its acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co.. Details of government aid are likely to be disclosed on Jan. 20, the people said. That’s when Bank of America may post its first quarterly loss in 17 years as it digests the purchases of Merrill Lynch and Countrywide Financial Corp. The combined company has already received $25 billion from the U.S.

U.S. foreclosure filings jumped 81 percent last year to more than 2.3 million as falling house prices, tighter mortgage lending and the longest recession in a quarter century battered property owners, RealtyTrac Inc. said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eric Martin in New York at emartin21@bloomberg.net.