U.S. Stock-Index Futures Decline; Wachovia, Qualcomm Retreat

By Marco Bertacche


Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock-index futures fell after Wachovia Corp. said it expects to raise allowances for loan losses in the fourth quarter and as Qualcomm Inc. lowered its annual forecast.

Shares of Wachovia, the fourth-largest U.S. bank, declined. Qualcomm dropped in Europe. The world's second-biggest maker of chips that run mobile phones said a patent dispute with Nokia Oyj may cut into its most profitable source of revenue.

Standard & Poor's 500 Index futures expiring in December lost 14.40 to 1,461.10 as of 12:01 p.m. in London. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures decreased 103 to 13,159. Nasdaq-100 Index futures dropped 17.75 to 2,087.75.

The S&P 500 has fallen 2.3 percent this week, heading for its second straight weekly decline after Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley reported losses tied to subprime mortgage loans and Cisco Systems Inc. said a ``dramatic'' drop in sales to financial and automobile companies is curbing growth.

``The credit crunch seems to be harder to digest and the main concern going forward is U.S. growth,'' said Valerio Salvati, head of portfolio management at JPMorgan Asset Management in Milan, which manages the equivalent of $19 billion.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke told lawmakers in Washington yesterday that officials already expect the economy to ``slow noticeably'' this quarter. The Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index is expected to show that confidence among consumers this month fell to the lowest since May 2006 as the housing slump deepened.

Wachovia retreated 23 cents to $40.07. The bank expects to increase its allocation for loan losses to as much as $600 million in the fourth quarter.

Banks Decline

Bank of America Corp., the second-largest U.S. bank, slid 27 cents to $43.23 in Germany. Citigroup, the country's biggest bank by assets, decreased 18 cents to $32.72.

Qualcomm tumbled $2.77 to $36.99 in Germany. The report after the close of regular trading yesterday further clouded the outlook for technology companies. Qualcomm trimmed its profit forecast for fiscal 2008 by as much as 30 cents a share to as little as $2.03 late yesterday. Analysts in a Bloomberg survey had estimated an average of $2.14.

Fannie Mae lost 58 cents to $49.22 in Germany. The largest source of money for U.S. home loans is scheduled to report third- quarter results today.

Nvidia Corp. jumped $2.74 to $36.57 in Germany. The world's second-largest maker of computer-graphics chips said third- quarter profit more than doubled and revenue rose 36 percent to $1.12 billion, beating the average estimate in a Bloomberg survey of analysts.

Priceline.com Inc. surged $12.22 to $96.49 in Germany after the online-travel agency whose shares have doubled in the past year reported higher third-quarter profit than analysts estimated and said it bought an Asian-Pacific hotel booking company.