US stock index futures almost unchanged

U.S. stock-index futures were little changed, after a three-day decline by the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as investors awaited a report on consumer confidence and weighed comments by Federal Reserve officials.

S&P 500 futures expiring in December slipped less than 0.1% to 1,692 at 8:50 a.m. in New York. The benchmark gauge for U.S. equities has declined 1.4% in the past three trading sessions after reaching an all-time high of 1,725.52 as the Fed refrained from cutting stimulus. Contracts on the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 3 points, or less than 0.1%, to 15,321 today.

“The Fed’s still driving the market,” Louis de Fels, a Paris-based fund manager at Raymond James Asset Management International, which oversees about $53 billion, said by telephone for Bloomberg. “One president has said they may start tapering in October and some say quantitative easing must continue. The uncertainty of the timing has shaken the market.”

A report at 10 a.m. New York time will show the Conference Board’s consumer-confidence index for August. Another release at the same time is manufacturing in the region covered by the Fed Bank of Richmond which is projected to decline by analysts. The factory index, which covers North Carolina, South Carolina, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia and most of West Virginia, dropped to 12 from 14 last month, economists predicted in a Bloomberg survey.

In corporate world, Applied Materials roase 2.9% to $16.61 as the largest supplier of chip making equipment said it will buy Tokyo Electron. Gary Dickerson, chief executive officer of Applied Materials, will become CEO of the combined company, which will be 68% owned by Applied Materials shareholders.

Facebook Inc. added new 2% to $48.15. Citigroup Inc.’s Mark May raised his recommendation on the social-network operator to buy from neutral, saying feedback from advertisers and agencies suggest that the growth seen in the second quarter is sustainable. May also boosted his price estimate by 72% to $55 a share.

Red Hat tumbled 10% to $47.50. Billings, a predictor of future revenue, rose 8% in the second quarter from a year earlier to $376 million. Analysts at CLSA had projected an increase of 17%, and Stifel Nicolaus & Co. predicted 14% growth.