U.S. Stock Futures Fall on Draghi Remarks

By Michael P. Regan - Dec 8, 2011 9:06 PM GMT+0700

U.S. stock futures, European equities and the euro fell, erasing earlier gains, after European Central Bank president Mario Draghi said he didn’t signal plans to purchase more bonds.

Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index expiring this month fell 0.7 percent to 1,255.0 at 9:05 a.m. in New York after climbing as much as 0.6 percent. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index lost 0.4 percent, reversing a 1 percent advance. The euro slipped 0.4 percent to $1.3363. The S&P GSCI Index of commodities rose 0.1 percent, paring a gain of as much as 0.9 percent.

Equities and the euro headed lower after Draghi said the ECB’s bond-purchase program was not eternal or infinite, damping speculation that the central bank will increase purchases of debt of struggling European nations. Stocks and the shared currency had rallied earlier as Draghi said the ECB was pursuing more non-standard measures to fight the crisis, including three- year loans and looser collateral criteria.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael P. Regan at mregan12@bloomberg.net