U.S. Stock-Index Futures Drop; Procter & Gamble, Citigroup Fall

By Adria Cimino

Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock-index futures fell on concern a report today will show retail sales declined for a sixth month as shoppers rein in spending amid the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Procter & Gamble Co., the world’s largest maker of consumer products, and General Motors Corp., the biggest U.S. carmaker, retreated. Citigroup Inc. slipped 4.4 percent after Deutsche Bank AG reported a fourth-quarter loss.

Sales at U.S. retailers probably fell in December for a sixth consecutive month as rising unemployment caused consumers to retrench, economists said.

“We’ve seen in the last figures we are on a down move with retail sales,” said Walter Harecker, a fund manager at Constantia Privatbank AG in Vienna, which oversees the equivalent of $13 billion. “Everyone’s looking forward to the data and not very happily.”

Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures expiring in March slid 1.5 percent to 856 as of 8:15 a.m. in New York. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures lost 1.2 percent to 8,304 and Nasdaq 100 Index futures decreased 1.3 percent to 1,188.75.

The S&P 500 has dropped 3.5 percent in 2009 as companies from Alcoa to Intel Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. 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.

Deutsche Bank Loss

Citigroup slipped 26 cents to $5.64 in trading before the open of exchanges in New York. Banks led declines in Europe after Deutsche Bank reported a fourth-quarter loss after taxes of about 4.8 billion euros ($6.3 billion) as the global financial crisis hurt debt and equity trading.

Separately, Citigroup may sell its CitiFinancial consumer- lending unit and rein in trading with the bank’s own capital after agreeing to cede control of its Smith Barney retail brokerage, people familiar with the plan said.

Procter & Gamble slipped 0.8 percent to $59.01 in Germany. GM dropped 2.2 percent to $3.93.

U.S. retail purchases fell 1.2 percent last month, extending the longest stretch of declines since records began in 1992, according to the median estimate of 77 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Sales decreased 1.8 percent in November. The report is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. in Washington.

U.S. stocks gained yesterday for the first time in three days as a rebound in oil prices lifted energy producers and improving credit markets boosted banks.

Cheapest Since 1991

The S&P 500’s valuation slid to less than 15.5 times reported earnings yesterday, the cheapest since 1991. The index is trading at 11.8 times its companies’ estimated profits over the next 12 months, compared with a 2008 low of 9.8 on Nov. 21, when the S&P 500 began its rebound from an 11-year low.

Yahoo! Inc., the owner of the second-biggest search engine, named Autodesk Inc. Chairman Carol Bartz as chief executive officer. The stock climbed 2 percent to $12.34.

H.J. Heinz Co. slipped 1.5 percent to $35.87. The world’s largest ketchup maker, was cut to “market perform” from “outperform” at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., which said 2010 earnings may be hurt by currency swings.

Blackstone Group LP, the world’s largest private-equity firm, fell 3.6 percent to $5.90 after it was cut to “underweight” from “overweight” by Barclays Plc. The brokerage also downgraded Fortress Investment Group LLC, a private-equity and hedge-fund manager, to “equal weight” from “overweight.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Adria Cimino in Paris at acimino1@bloomberg.net.