U.S. Stocks Fall as Jobless Offset BofA

U.S. stock futures pared gains, following a three-day rally for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as data showed that claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week. Nasdaq-100 Index futures fell as Steve Jobs resigned as chief executive officer of Apple Inc. (AAPL)

Bank of America Corp. (BAC) rallied 1.7 percent, following yesterday’s 11 percent gain. TiVo Inc. (TIVO), the digital-video recording pioneer, surged 9.2 percent after reporting a smaller loss than analysts predicted. Apple, which briefly surpassed Exxon Mobil Corp. this month as the world’s most valuable company, slid 2.3 percent. Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT), the world’s largest producer of chipmaking equipment, fell 6.1 percent after forecasting sales that missed analysts’ estimates.

S&P 500 futures expiring in September rose 0.2 percent to 1,174.10 at 8:56 a.m. in New York after earlier rising 0.4 percent. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gained 19 points, or 0.2 percent, to 11,287. Futures on the Nasdaq-100, which gets 66 percent of its value from computer-related companies such as Apple, dropped 0.3 percent to 2,132.75.

“The markets have been very sensitive to every piece of economic data,” Keith Wirtz, the Cincinnati-based chief investment officer at Fifth Third Asset Management, which oversees $16.7 billion, said in a telephone interview. “You still got an indication that we have a poor labor market. When it comes to Jackson Hole, the sentiment has been all over the place. It seems that the recent stock performance has been supported by expectations of QE3. If there’s no indication tomorrow, this market may retrace.”

Economic Data
U.S. stocks rose yesterday, extending the biggest rally for the S&P 500 in a week, after reports on durable-goods orders and home prices beat economists’ forecasts and banks advanced. The S&P 500 has still lost 14 percent from this year’s high on April 29 through yesterday after S&P stripped the U.S. of its AAA credit rating and Europe’s debt crisis spilled into Italy and France.

Jobless claims climbed by 5,000 to 417,000 in the week ended Aug. 20, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News projected a drop in claims to 405,000, according to the median forecast. At least 8,500 applications were filed by workers at Verizon last week, compared with 12,500 the prior week, a department spokesman said as the data was released to the press.

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and other central bankers are meeting in Jackson Hole for an annual conference sponsored by the Fed Bank of Kansas City. Bernanke’s hint of a second round of asset purchases, or quantitative easing, during the same event last year spurred an eight-month rally in the S&P 500.

Bank of America
Bank of America gained 1.7 percent to $7.11. The shares have fallen 48 percent this year through yesterday.

TiVo rallied 9.2 percent to $8.87. The digital-video recording pioneer reported a smaller second-quarter loss than analysts anticipated, helped by a net increase in cable and satellite subscribers.

Apple declined 2.3 percent to $367.45 after the resignation of CEO Jobs, who transformed the company he started at age 21 from a personal-computer also-ran into the world’s largest technology company. Jobs, who will become chairman, was on medical leave since Jan. 17, following a 2003 cancer diagnosis and a liver transplant in 2009. He is succeeded by Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook, 50, who has been running day-to-day operations.

“I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know,” Jobs, 56, said in a statement yesterday. “Unfortunately, that day has come.”

Applied Materials lost 6.1 percent to $10.67. Applied’s customers are scaling back on orders for new machinery amid concern that demand is stalling for computers, mobile phones and consumer electronics. The company also supplies makers of TV and computer flat-panel displays and solar panels, two markets that are also “under pressure,” said Patrick Ho, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus & Co. in Dallas.