US stock futures almost unchanged amid earnings reports

U.S. stock index futures were little changed, after the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed to a new record high on Friday, as investors awaited earnings for McDonald’s Corp. Todays economic calendar is almost empty of data news, however at 3 pm London time existing home sales report will be posted. A report at 10 a.m. New York time may show U.S. house sales jumped in June to the highest level since November 2009. Sales of previously owned properties increased to a 5.25 million annualized pace from 5.18 million in May, according to the median forecast of 65 economists in a Bloomberg survey.

Futures on the S&P 500 expiring in September rose 0.1% to 1,690.7 at 7:28 a.m. in New York. The equity benchmark climbed last week as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said that the central bank remains flexible about the duration of its bond-purchase program. Future contracts on the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 2 points, or less than 0.1%, to 15,508 today.

“Tapering concerns have eased with investors switching attention to an extremely busy second-quarter reporting week,” Richard Hunter, head of equities at Hargreaves Lansdown Plc in London, wrote in an e-mail to Bloomberg. “Whereas the standout performers so far have been the U.S. banks, there have been some disappointing updates from the technology sector. Further clues will come with numbers from the likes of Facebook, Amazon and the currently beleaguered Apple.”, he added.

More than 150 S&P 500 listed companies, including Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc., are due to report their earnings this week. Of the 103 companies on the benchmark index to have already reported quarterly results, 73% have exceeded analysts’ profit estimates and 53% have beaten sales projections, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

In corporate news, Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley surged more than 5% last week as financial shares gained. However, technology stocks recorded the worst performance among the 10 groups in the S&P 500, as Google Inc. and Microsoft retreated following disappointing earnings.

McDonalds posted second quarter earnings of $1.38 per share, missing estimated $1.40 per share for the worlds largest fast food chain. McDonalds Corp reported a 4% rise in quarterly profit, while global sales at established restaurants were in line with analysts expectations.