U.S. Stock Futures Climb Before Inflation Report

By Sarah Jones - Dec 16, 2011 7:14 PM GMT+0700

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Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Francisco Jeronimo, an analyst at IDC, talks about the outlook for Research In Motion Ltd. He speaks with Owen Thomas on Bloomberg Television's "On the Move." (Source: Bloomberg)

U.S. stock futures rose, indicating the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) will advance for a second day, before a report that may show inflation is in check.

Alcoa Inc. (AA) and Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX) climbed in early New York trading as base metals advanced. Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) dropped 8.8 percent after the company delayed the release of a new generation of BlackBerry devices.

Futures on the S&P 500 expiring in March rose 0.5 percent to 1,218 at 7:12 a.m. in New York. The gauge increased 0.3 percent yesterday, trimming this week’s decline to 3.1 percent. Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures added 42 points, or 0.4 percent, to 11,864 today.

“Today’s interest will be directed at consumer prices,” Viola Stork, an analyst at Helaba Landesbank Hessen-Thueringen in Frankfurt, wrote in a note to clients today. “Overall, fears of inflation shouldn’t arise as the mid-term perspectives expect a weakening of inflation.”

U.S. stocks snapped a three-day decline yesterday after reports on jobless claims and manufacturing boosted confidence in the world’s largest economy.

Today’s Labor Department report may show the cost of living the U.S. was little changed in November as gasoline prices fell, economists said. The consumer-price index increased 0.1 percent last month after falling 0.1 percent in October, according to the median economist forecast in a Bloomberg News survey. So- called core prices, which exclude volatile food and energy costs, may have also risen 0.1 percent. The figures are due at 8:30 a.m in Washington.

Weekly Drop

The S&P 500 has still lost 3.1 percent this week after the Federal Reserve refrained from taking new action to bolster growth. The central bank said the U.S. economy is maintaining its expansion even as the global economy slows.

Fed Bank of New York President William C. Dudley in a prepared testimony reiterated the central bank isn’t planning to undertake additional steps to curtail the impact of Europe’s debt crisis, while standing by to boost liquidity if necessary. He is scheduled to appear at 9:30 a.m. at a hearing in Washington.

Alcoa, the largest U.S. aluminum producer, climbed 2.4 percent to $8.99 in New York. Freeport-McMoRan, the biggest publicly traded copper producer, gained 1.7 percent to $37.50.

Copper led base metals higher on the London Metal Exchange as yesterday’s economic data continued to ease concerns that the global economic recovery is at risk.

‘Powerful Impetus’

“Yesterday’s economic data already have a hint that fortunes could turn more positive for industrial metals in 2012,” Tobias Merath, head of global commodity research at Credit Suisse AG, wrote in a report today. “When economic growth stabilizes, this could deliver a powerful impetus.”

RIM (RIMM) dropped 8.8 percent to $13.80 in New York after saying a new generation of BlackBerrys designed to fuel a comeback won’t be out until the “latter part” of 2012.

The smartphone maker, which originally planned to release the new devices in the first quarter of next year, also gave sales and profit forecasts that missed analysts’ estimates.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Jones in London at sjones35@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Rummer at arummer@bloomberg.net