U.S. Stock Futures Fluctuate; Alcoa Drops, Citigroup Advances

[Joanne98]

March 11 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock futures swung between gains and losses after the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index posted its biggest rally of the year yesterday.

Alcoa Inc., the largest U.S. aluminum maker, declined 1 percent in Germany on lower metals prices. Avon Products Inc. sank 3.6 percent after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. recommended selling the shares. Citigroup Inc. added 9 percent, indicating the stock will extend yesterday’s 38 percent advance.

Futures on the S&P 500 expiring this month slipped 0.3 percent to 713.80 as of 9:07 a.m. in London after gaining as much as 0.9 percent earlier. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 0.4 percent to 6,861 and Nasdaq-100 Index futures increased 0.1 percent to 1,106.75. Stocks in Asia advanced, while European shares declined.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index yesterday surged 6.4 percent, the biggest rally since November, after Citigroup said it was having its best quarter since 2007, spurring speculation the worst of the banking crisis is over.

“The rubber band was overstretched to the downside but it takes more time to find a bottom,” said Rudolf Buxtorf, who manages the equivalent of $114 million at RBS Coutts Bank in Zurich. “We’ll keep seeing backlashes. We had a lot of negative news and yesterday for the first time positive news from the banking sector.”

The rebound in the S&P 500 from 665 is a bullish sign to traders who base predictions on so-called Fibonacci patterns in price charts. The index has rallied 7.9 percent since sinking to 666.79 on March 6. The low was within 0.3 percent of 665, a level at which the benchmark index would give up 61.8 percent of the 25-year rally beginning in 1982.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=acFN8yyGbMYc&refer=us