US stock index futures almost unchanged, as jobless claims drop

U.S. stock futures slightly advanced, indicating a second day of modest gains for benchmark indexes, as jobless claims fell to a two-month low and investors awaited Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernankes testimony.

Future contracts on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index expiring in September gained 0.2% to 1,679.20 at 9:00 a.m. in New York. Contracts on the Dow Jones Industrial Average stayed unchanged.

“We’re not expecting any blowout for U.S. earnings this quarter,” Jonathan Aldrich-Blake, working at Ashburton Ltd. said by phone to Bloomberg from Jersey, Channel Islands. “They will probably come in more in line with expectations than in previous periods and there hasn’t really been anything stellar so far. We’re looking at growth in the U.S. more towards the tail end of this year.”

The S&P 500 advanced yesterday as Bernanke said the pace of economic recovery will determine whether the Fed reduces its asset purchases. In a prepared report, he said the central bank’s asset purchases are not on a preset course. Bernanke will continue his semi-annual testimony on monetary policy to the Senate Banking Committee today at 10 a.m. EDT in Washington, followed by questions from lawmakers.

Todays data report showed fewer than forecast Americans filed jobless claims which dropped by 24,000 to 334,000 in the week ended July 13.

In US corporate news, IBM rose 2.3% to $199 after raising earnings forecast from $16.90 a share in 2013, up to its earlier prediction for $16.70. The company is betting that faster-growing market such as cloud computing and data analysis can offset a slowdown in information-technology spending.

SanDisk Corp., the flash memory storage data supplier, gained 4.9%to $62.38. The company said it may post as much as $1.58 billion in sales for the third quarter, compared with the average analyst prediction of $1.49 billion.

EBay retreated 6.4% to $53.70. Third-quarter sales will be $3.85 billion to $3.95 billion as e-commerce growth rates in Europe and Korea slow and currencies weaken against the U.S. dollar, the online marketplace provider said. That’s less than the average analyst projection of $3.97 billion.

Celgene Corp. declined 2.3% to $133.50 after saying it will stop a late-stage trial of its Revlimid drug for treatment of leukemia in elderly patients because of the number of deaths in the study.