U.S. Stock Futures Remain Positive As Banks Take a Rest From Selling Off…. Plus Market Movers

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Futures in the green, but the over night trend has been down

March 3 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stock futures advanced after yesterday’s sell-off left companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index valued at the cheapest relative to earnings since 1986, overshadowing concern the economy will deteriorate further.

Citigroup Inc. rose 13 percent in early New York trading, while Bank of America Corp. gained 5.1 percent. The S&P 500 traded at 12.2 times company profits from the past 10 years as of yesterday’s close, according to data compiled by Yale University professor Robert Shiller, who uses a decade of earnings to smooth out short-term fluctuations.

Futures on the S&P 500 expiring this month added 0.5 percent to 709.20 as of 12:22 p.m. in London after the index closed at the lowest level since October 1996. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gained 0.5 percent to 6,826 and Nasdaq-100 Index futures advanced 0.6 percent to 1,092.50.

“Everything is a buying opportunity because valuations are super attractive,” said Jacques Porta, a fund manager at Ofi Patrimoine in Paris, which oversees about $615 million. “We’ve never seen anything like it. But the problem is there is still the risk of declines. We’re still in a credit crunch and the outlook on the economy is negative.”