Stock Futures Rise as Greece Nears Swap

By Rita Nazareth - Mar 8, 2012 8:36 PM GMT+0700

U.S. stock futures rose, indicating the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will gain for a second straight day, as Greece moved closer to completing its debt swap.

Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Inc. (C) added at least 1.1 percent, following a rally in European lenders. Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX) and Alcoa Inc. (AA) advanced more than 1.6 percent as the S&P GSCI index of 24 commodities gained 0.7 percent. American International Group Inc. lost 2 percent as the U.S. Treasury Department is selling $6 billion in shares.

S&P 500 futures expiring in March added 0.7 percent to 1,362.70 at 8:35 a.m. New York time. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 68 points, or 0.5 percent, to 12,909.

“The market bounces on optimism that Greek creditors will mostly agree to exchange their bonds for new ones,” Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak & Co. in New York, wrote in a note. “This thus sets the stock market up for a major test when the official news is out as the market tries to retest last week’s high.”

The S&P 500 has risen 7.6 percent this year amid better- than-estimated economic data and expectations Europe would tame its debt crisis. On Feb. 24, the index advanced to the highest level in almost four years. The Dow last week closed above 13,000 (INDU) for the first time since May 2008.

Equity futures gained on speculation Greece will reach its participation target by the deadline of 10 p.m. in Athens. Holders of about 60 percent of the Greek bonds eligible for the deal, including Greece’s largest banks, most of the country’s pension funds and more than 30 European banks and insurers, have agreed to the offer.

Jobless Claims

The number of Americans filing claims for jobless benefits rose to 362,000 last week, a level consistent with an improving labor market. The Labor Department will report monthly jobs data tomorrow, which economists forecast will show an increase of 225,000 private jobs and total non-farm payrolls growth of 210,000.

Financial companies gained as a gauge of European lenders rallied 1.8 percent. Morgan Stanley (MS) added 1.8 percent to $18.20. Citigroup increased 1.1 percent to $33.60.

Energy and raw material producers gained as commodities rallied. Freeport-McMoRan climbed 1.6 percent to $39.60. Alcoa added 1.8 percent to $9.72.

AIG (AIG) slumped 2 percent to $28.85. The insurer plans to purchase as much as $3 billion of the sale, the Treasury said yesterday in a statement. Shares are being offered at $29 apiece and the books are still open, according to two people familiar with the matter, who declined to be identified because the process is private. The department sold 200 million shares of New York-based AIG in May -- also at $29 each -- cutting its stake to 77 percent.

Monster Worldwide

Monster Worldwide Inc. (MWW), the online recruiting service that has lost almost 90 percent of its value, is poised to extract a record takeover premium for investors.

Chief Executive Officer Salvatore Iannuzzi said last week he is weighing options to boost the company’s shares after Monster traded as low as 0.67 times the value of its net assets.

The world’s largest Internet jobs board, valued at more than $7.5 billion in 2006 before U.S. unemployment reached 10 percent and LinkedIn Corp. (LNKD) emerged as an alternative, could still fetch as much as $15 a share in a takeover by a competitor, said Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. Buyers would be paying an 80 percent premium -- the highest ever among similar- sized deals in the human resources and e-commerce services industries -- to get a hold of the New York-based company’s 23 percent international sales growth last year from operations in more than 50 countries.

“It should wrest a high premium,” David Katz, chief investment officer at New York-based Matrix, which oversees about $935 million and owned Monster shares as of February, said in a telephone interview. Acquirers would still be “getting it at a steal. It’s got a reasonable likelihood of happening because you can pay a nice premium and still everybody comes out having done well,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rita Nazareth in New York at rnazareth@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Baker at nbaker7@bloomberg.net