World Crisis Online

p class=”partner”> By Francesca Cinelli

March 4 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stock-index futures advanced, signaling benchmark gauges may extend their biggest rallies in three months, as investors awaited a government jobs report that may add to evidence the economy is improving.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. rose 0.8 percent after increasing its quarterly dividend. Intel Corp. gained after Robert W. Baird & Co. recommended the shares. Marvell Technology Group Ltd. plunged 5.9 percent after predicting first-quarter sales that trailed analysts’ estimates. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. slid as Bank of America Corp. cut its rating on the bank.

Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index expiring in March rose 0.1 percent at 1,331.2 at 7:58 a.m. in New York. The gauge surged 1.7 percent yesterday, the biggest increase since Dec. 1. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures advanced 0.2 percent to 12,264 today, and Nasdaq-100 Index futures increased 0.1 percent to 2,374.25.

“The U.S. payrolls report for February is the main event of the day,” Adrian Foster, head of financial-market research for Asia at Rabobank Groep NV in Hong Kong, wrote in an e-mailed note.

The Labor Department’s February jobs data is due to be released at 8:30 a.m. in Washington. Payrolls grew by 196,000 workers last month, the most since May 2010, after a 36,000 gain in January, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists. The release may also show the jobless rate rose to 9.1 percent from 9 percent.

Company Earnings

The S&P 500 has risen 0.8 percent this week, heading for the fourth weekly advance in five amid better-than-estimated corporate earnings. Out of 470 companies in the index that have reported quarterly results since Jan. 10, 332 have topped analysts’ projections for per-share profit, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Wal-Mart gained 0.8 percent to $52.42 as the world’s largest retailer increased its quarterly dividend to 36.5 cents, more than the Bloomberg estimate for 32.5 cents.

Intel advanced 0.5 percent to $21.90 in Germany. The world’s biggest chipmaker was upgraded to “outperform” from “neutral” at Robert Baird.

LSB Industries Inc. rose 2.3 percent to $32.82 in German trading. The maker of chemical and climate control products reported fourth-quarter profit of 79 cents a share, more than double the average analyst estimate in a Bloomberg survey.

Marvell Slides

Marvell Technology, a maker of processors for the BlackBerry phone, retreated 5.9 percent to $17.15 in early New York trading. First-quarter revenue will be $800 million to $850 million, said Clyde Hosein, the company’s chief financial officer, on a conference call. That compares with an average estimate of $882.5 million, according to a Bloomberg survey of 21 analysts.

Goldman Sachs fell 1 percent to $162.88 and Citigroup Inc. slipped 0.9 percent to $4.64 as Bank of America Corp. cut its recommendation on both stocks to “neutral” from “buy.”

–Editors: Andrew Rummer, Michael Regan

To contact the reporter on this story: Francesca Cinelli in Milan at fcinelli@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Rummer at arummer@bloomberg.net.