U.S. Futures Rise, Commodities Climb Before Fed

By Stephen Kirkland - Nov 2, 2011 6:02 PM GMT+0700

U.S. index futures and commodities rose, while the dollar and Treasuries retreated before the Federal Reserve’s policy statement. European stocks fell as the euro-area rescue fund delayed a bond sale.

Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures added 0.3 percent at 6:50 a.m. in New York, following a 2.8 percent slump in the U.S. gauge yesterday. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index lost 0.2 percent. The Dollar Index declined 0.4 percent, snapping a three-day advance, and Treasury 10-year yields gained six basis points, the first increase in four days. Italian 10-year bonds rose, narrowing the yield difference with benchmark German bunds by nine basis points to 433. Copper ended two days of losses.

The Fed is probably engineering a third round of asset purchases, even as a decision is unlikely to be announced today, economists surveyed by Bloomberg said. The European Financial Stability Facility will delay its planned 3 billion-euro ($4.1 billion) bond sale because of market conditions. European leaders will hold talks with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou in Cannes, France, before a Group of 20 summit.

“The dollar is softening into the meeting on talk of” quantitative easing, said Jane Foley, a senior currency strategist at Rabobank International in London. “That may be premature. The Fed’s tone will be very cautious.”

The S&P 500 fell for a second day yesterday. Sixty-nine percent of economists surveyed by Bloomberg say Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will start a third round of quantitative easing, or QE3, with 36 percent predicting the move in the first quarter of next year, according to a poll of 42 economists from Oct. 26-31.

Cutting Forecast

The Stoxx 600 has dropped 6 percent this week. Logica Plc sank 7.4 percent as the Anglo-Dutch computer services provider cut its sales-growth forecast.

German bund yields were three basis points higher after dropping 26 basis points yesterday, the biggest decline since Bloomberg began collecting the data in 1992. Greek two-year yields rose 141 basis points to 88.69 percent, after climbing to as high as a record 88.81 percent yesterday.

Germany sold 4 billion euros of five-year notes at a record-low yield of 1 percent, and Portugal raised 1.2 billion euros in a sale of three-month bills.

The euro strengthened 0.6 percent to $1.378. The dollar weakened 0.4 percent to 78.03 yen.

Copper climbed 2.3 percent as inventories of the metal in warehouses monitored by the London Metal Exchange dropped for a 10th consecutive day, the longest decline since July 6. New York oil rose 0.3 percent to $92.49 a barrel, the first gain in four days.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index rose 0.5 percent, following its worst two-day decline in a month. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index climbed 2.6 percent in Hong Kong.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Kirkland in London at skirkland@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stuart Wallace at swallace6@bloomberg.net