U.S. Stock-Index Futures Rise as Facebook Jumps on Sales

By Jonathan Morgan Jan 30, 2014 1:45 PM GMT+0100

U.S. stock-index futures advanced, indicating that the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will rebound from yesterday’s slide, as Facebook Inc. (FB) rallied after posting revenue and profit that exceeded analysts’ estimates.

Facebook jumped 16 percent in early New York trading after the world’s largest social network reported that more than half of its advertising revenue came from mobile devices in the last quarter of 2013. Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., the world’s largest fertilizer producer by market value, fell 3.4 percent after its profit forecast trailed analysts’ estimates.

Futures on the S&P 500 expiring in March gained 0.3 percent to 1,776.2 at 7:42 a.m. in New York. The equity benchmark lost 1 percent yesterday as the Federal Reserve decided to reduce its monthly bond purchases by $10 billion. The S&P 500 has dropped 4 percent this month. Dow Jones Industrial Average contracts added 52 points, or 0.3 percent, to 15,750 today.

“A number of corporate updates are actually rather stronger than had been feared,” Richard Hunter, head of equities at Hargreaves Lansdown Plc in London, wrote in an e-mail. “That would further vindicate the Fed’s decision to taper as the economy in general moves towards being able to stand on its own two feet.”

Stocks in the S&P 500 probably increased their earnings per share by 6.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013 and their revenue by 2.6 percent, analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg show.

A Commerce Department report at 8:30 a.m. in Washington will show the U.S. economy expanded at a 3.2 percent annualized rate in the fourth quarter, according to the median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg survey. Gross domestic product grew at a 4.1 percent pace in the preceding three-month period.

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