Reply #16: U.S. Futures Are Little Changed Before GDP; Amazon.com Tumbles

[Pale Blue Dot]

an. 28 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock-index futures were little changed after the longest winning streak in more than a month for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as investors awaited a report on gross domestic product.

Amazon.com Inc. sank 8.7 percent in German trading after predicting quarterly results below estimates. Verizon Communications Inc. retreated 1 percent after agreeing to buy Terremark Worldwide Inc. for about $1.4 billion. Coherent Inc. jumped as its projected sales beat analysts’ forecasts.

Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index expiring in March lost 0.1 percent to 1,294 at 10:31 a.m. in London. The benchmark gauge is headed for a rally this week, its eighth advance in nine weeks, after the Federal Reserve said it will continue its current program of asset purchases, a strategy known as quantitative easing, even as growth picks up. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slid less than 0.1 percent to 11,939 today, while Nasdaq-100 Index futures fell 0.2 percent to 2,318.25.

“With growth rates like these, it is hard to see any justification for extending QE beyond the end of June, when the current program is slated to end,” Robert Carnell, chief international economist at ING Financial Markets, said in a note. “Indeed, the justification for the present program looked somewhat dubious even as it was instigated, and the economy has definitely improved since then.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aRVNpKluJ4nU