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U.S. Stock Futures Advance on JPMorgan, Drop in Jobless Claims....

April 16 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock-index futures advanced after initial jobless claims unexpectedly fell and JPMorgan Chase & Co. reported better-than-estimated earnings.
JPMorgan, the second-largest U.S. bank by assets, climbed 1.7 percent after posting record fixed-income trading revenue and saying it can repay government rescue funds. Citigroup Inc. added 3.8 percent and Bank of America Corp. climbed 2.1 percent. Sun Microsystems Inc. rallied 11 percent after saying it would be willing to resume acquisition talks if International Business Machines Corp. makes a stronger commitment to complete a deal.
Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index expiring in June climbed 0.6 percent to 853.3 at 8:45 a.m. in New York. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 0.4 percent to 8,011, while Nasdaq-100 Index futures added 1.4 percent to 1,334.75.
Futures extended gains after the government said fewer Americans filed claims for jobless benefits last week even as insured unemployment rose to the highest level in 26 years. Initial jobless claims decreased by 53,000 to 610,000 in the week ended April 11. The data overshadowed a separate report showing builders broke ground on fewer homes in March and permits fell to a record low.
The S&P 500 has rebounded 26 percent from a 12-year low on March 9 as lenders from Citigroup Inc. to Barclays Plc said they made money in the first two months of 2009 and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announced plans to finance as much as $1 trillion in purchases of financial firms’ distressed assets.
‘Real Money’
NYSE Euronext Chief Executive Officer Duncan Niederauer said last month’s rally in equities was propelled by traders taking advantage of price fluctuations rather than “real money” investors, who are waiting to see whether the gains will hold, the Financial Times reported.
“We’re waiting for another rally, in my opinion, in around June and July,” when institutional and other long-term investors start putting more money into equities, the newspaper quoted him as saying in an interview.
Analysts estimate that profits at S&P 500 companies decreased for the seventh straight quarter in the January to March period, the longest stretch of declines since at least the Great Depression.
General Growth Properties Inc., the second-largest U.S. shopping-mall owner, slid 52 percent to 50 cents after filing for bankruptcy as it failed to refinance its debt.