Azernews.Az

By Bloomberg

U.S. stock-index futures rose after China’s central bank cut banks’ reserve requirements by the most since the global financial crisis.

E-mini contracts on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index expiring in June added 0.5 percent to 2,086.75 at 9:52 a.m. in London. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gained 93 points, or 0.5 percent, to 17,863.

China cut the main reserve ratio by 1 percentage point, the most since 2008, amid the slowest economic expansion in six years, and as data showed new-home prices fell from a year earlier. The country’s stock regulator last week clamped down on the use of shadow financing to buy equities and made it easier to bet on declines.

U.S. stocks on Friday fell the most in three weeks as American Express Co. tumbled and data signaled stronger inflation. The S&P 500 last reached a multi-year high on March 2, the same day the Nasdaq Composite Index topped 5,000 for the first time in 15 years.

Morgan Stanley, International Business Machines Corp. and Halliburton Co. are among nine companies reporting results today. Analysts expect a slump in earnings for S&P companies through September, predicting a fall of 4.3 percent in the first quarter, which would be the first such period of negative profit growth since 2009, amid concern over a surging dollar and worse- than-forecast economic reports.

Costco Wholesale Corp. rose 1.3 percent. The retailer struck a deal with Visa Inc. and Citigroup Inc. under which acceptance costs for credit-card payments will be about zero, according to people familiar with the arrangement.