US stock futures rise as earning season gains continue

U.S. stock index futures advanced, suggesting the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will rebound after yesterday’s drop, as Apple Inc. posted profit that topped estimates and European manufacturing surprisingly jumped.

Future contracts on the S&P 500 expiring in September added 0.4% to 1,695 at 7:31 a.m. in New York, after the underlying index slipped 0.2% yesterday. Contracts on the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 43 points, or 0.3%, to 15,556 today. Nasdaq-100 Index futures surged 1%.

“The focus is on Apple’s results and that’s going to give some lead to the markets,” Nick Skiming, who works at Ashburton Investments, said by telephone for Bloomberg. “We’re in the midst of an earnings season that’s going reasonably well so far. Analysts had reduced expectations going into earnings season, so companies are matching and beating to a large extent. It’s steady as we go.”

Investors will receive data on new-home sales and the “flash” manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI). Investors appeared to be largely ignoring slowing factory output in China, and taking some inspiration from more impressive euro-zone preliminary PMI data.

Euro-zone manufacturing expanded in July for the first time in two years, led by Germany, signaling the region’s economy is emerging from a record-long recession. A preliminary index based on a survey of purchasing managers rose to 50.1 from 48.8 in June, London-based Markit Economics said today. That exceeded analysts estimates.

In corporate news, Apple added more than 4% in pre-market trading, following up on late-session gains on Tuesday. The company delivered better-than-expected third-quarter earnings, as shipments of iPhone exceeded estimates.

Caterpillar Inc. shares fell over 1% in pre-market trading after the company posted earnings per share of $1.45 for the second quarter from $2.54, as sales fell to $14.62 billion from $17.37 billion. Caterpillar was expected to report earnings of $1.69 a share, according to estimates from FactSet Research.

Shares of Ford Motor Co. rose 3% in premarket trade after it posted second-quarter earnings per share of 30 cents, up from 26 cents in the year-ago period, and sales that rose to $38.1 billion from $33.3 billion. The auto maker cited strong sales in North America and recovering sales in South America.

Lilly soared 3.5% to $52.80. The maker of the antidepressant Cymbalta and diabetes treatment Humalog reported second-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates and raised its full-year forecast after sales grew faster than expected as cost-cutting programs prove effective.

Shares of VMware Inc. gained 13% in pre-market after the maker of virtualization software posted a 27% rise in second-quarter profit and a double-digit gain in services revenue.