U.S. stock futures are little changed as investors watch data

U.S. stock futures were little changed after a report showed orders for durable goods climbed more than forecast and as investors awaited housing data.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. added 0.9 percent after the maker of the blood thinner Plavix doubled the size of its share buyback program. Monsanto Co., the world’s largest seed company, gained 0.3 percent as earnings exceeded analysts’ estimates. Facebook Inc. dropped 2.5 percent after at least 17 firms started to cover the shares of the social-networking company.

Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures expiring in September added less than 0.1 percent to 1,315.7 at 9:08 a.m. New York time. The benchmark gauge has fallen 6.3 percent so far this quarter and has risen 0.7 percent in June. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 7 points, or 0.1 percent, to 12,479.

Bookings for durable goods rose 1.1 percent in May, the first increase in three months, a Commerce Department report showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 76 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for a 0.5 percent gain. The number of Americans signing contracts to buy previously owned homes grew 1.5 percent in May after falling 5.5 percent in April, according to the Bloomberg survey median.

Stocks rose in Europe and Asia for the first time in five days amid speculation China will add to economic stimulus and Italian bonds gained after a debt sale ahead of a June 28-29 European Union summit. German Chancellor Angela Merkel shut the door to joint euro-area bonds as a means of lowering Spain’s borrowing costs, saying they are the “wrong way” to achieve the greater European integration needed to stem the debt crisis.

Quarterly Decline

The benchmark measure for U.S. equities is on pace for the first quarterly decline since September amid concern about a global economic slowdown. Energy, financial and technology shares have had the biggest losses so far in the second quarter, tumbling at least 9.5 percent.

Monsanto added 0.3 percent to $78.14. Sales of corn seed and genetic licenses rose 35 percent as U.S. farmers planted the biggest crop in 75 years. Soybean sales gained 15 percent, driven by demand for the newest seed engineered to tolerate Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Hugh Grant also is expanding in Latin America and Eastern Europe.

Bristol-Myers gained 0.9 percent to $34.82 after it authorized $3 billion in additional repurchases to be made over the “next couple years.” The new phase of the buyback program, announced in a statement today by the New York-based drugmaker, gives the company the ability to repurchase $3.34 billion of an estimated $58.3 billion in stock.

Facebook Slumps

Facebook retreated 2.5 percent to $32.26. The firms starting coverage on the company include its lead underwriter, Morgan Stanley. The New York-based bank started Facebook with the equivalent of a buy rating, as did seven other firms including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. There were eight holds and one sell, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The analysts’ underwriting banks have come under criticism after the IPO was set at a price that valued Facebook at 107 times reported earnings in the past 12 months, more than every Standard & Poor’s 500 Index stock except two. Facebook fell below its initial public offering price of $38 on the second day of trading on May 21 and hasn’t returned since.

Economic reports are due to take a turn for the better that will lift U.S. stocks, according to Binky Chadha, chief global strategist at Deutsche Bank AG.

‘Data Disappointment’

Investors are suffering from “data disappointment” that has become extreme by historical standards, Chadha wrote in a report two days ago. “The typical pattern from here would be for fewer negative surprises and then positive ones.”

Changes in jobless claims explain 88 percent of the S&P 500’s performance during the period, according to statistical analysis cited in the report. The figure is near a 100 percent limit when two values move in lockstep.

As the relationship suggests, economic data “have been the key driver of equities,” Chadha wrote. They largely explain why stocks have retreated in the past few weeks, the New York-based strategist added. The S&P 500 has fallen as much as 9.9 percent from this year’s high, set on April 2.

Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis and slowing growth in emerging markets have contributed to the decline, the report said. Any stock-market rebound triggered by policy changes on these issues won’t last unless the economic data turn around, he wrote.