Oct. 9 (Bloomberg) -- European stocks and U.S. index futures fell as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the central bank will be ready to raise interest rates when the economic outlook “has improved sufficiently.” Xstrata Plc, the world’s fourth-biggest copper producer, and Antofagasta Plc dropped more than 2 percent as metals prices retreated. Samsung Electronics Co. climbed 4.9 percent in Seoul, leading gains by Asian shares, as chip prices increased to a 17- month high. Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index slipped 0.4 percent to 242.54 at 11:06 a.m. in London, trimming this week’s gain to 3.6 percent. The gauge has dropped 1.4 percent from this year’s high on Sept. 17 as data on U.S. unemployment, manufacturing and consumer confidence missed economists’ forecasts, fueling concern that the global economic recovery may not be robust. “An increase in interest rates in an insecure environment is not welcome and the market did not want to hear that,” said Gerold Kuehne, who manages $127 million at LLB Asset Management AG in Vaduz, Liechtenstein. “We saw last week that economic data is still not positive. It’s a bumpy road to recovery.” Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures lost 0.3 percent today. The benchmark measure for U.S. equities has climbed for four straight days, the longest streak in a month, as Alcoa kicked off the earnings season with results that beat analysts’ estimates and jobless claims decreased more than forecast. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index advanced for a fourth day, increasing 0.4 percent. ‘Prepared to Tighten’ The U.S. dollar climbed the most in two months against the yen after Bernanke said in prepared remarks at a conference in Washington that “when the economic outlook has improved sufficiently, we will be prepared to tighten.” Bernanke’s comments echoed those by Kansas City Fed President Thomas Hoenig, who on Oct. 6 said raising interest rates wouldn’t derail the U.S. economic recovery. This week, Australia became the first country in the Group of 20 to raise interest rates since the start of the global financial crisis more than a year ago. The Stoxx 600 is heading for the biggest weekly gain since July as U.S. service industries grew after 11 months of contraction and Alcoa Inc., the largest U.S. aluminum producer, reported an unexpected third-quarter profit. ‘Still Bullish’ “I’m still bullish on equity markets,” Manoj Ladwa, a senior trader at ETX Capital in London, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “There are a lot of bears out there calling the markets lower but the trend is to the upside. If we look back at the previous quarter, a lot of companies reported a lot better than analyst expected.” White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers rejected the notion that the U.S. faces an extended period of below-average growth and high unemployment in the wake of the worst recession since the 1930s. “I would be very reluctant to accept the idea that the American economy no longer has the potential to grow rapidly,” Summers told a forum in New York yesterday organized by Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News. “The American people have not become less capable of entrepreneurship. They have not become less dedicated to hard work, and the productive potential of this economy has not declined.” Xstrata slid 2.5 percent to 941.5 pence and Antofagasta, the miner of copper in Chile, declined 3.2 percent to 808 pence. Copper declined, paring its biggest weekly gain in two months. Fresnillo, Samsung Fresnillo Plc, the world’s biggest primary silver producer, dropped 1.4 percent to 812.5 pence as gold dropped for the first time in six days, paring its biggest weekly advance since April. Samsung, the world’s largest memory-chip maker, climbed 4.9 percent to 755,000 won, while Hynix Semiconductor Inc., the world’s second-largest computer-memory maker, added 1.8 percent to 19,650 won. The price of the benchmark dynamic random access memory chip gained 5.2 percent today, extending yesterday’s 2.4 percent gain, to reach the highest level since May 2008, according to Dramexchange Technology Inc., operator of Asia’s biggest spot market for semiconductors. Tokyo Electron Ltd. gained 5 percent to 5,710 yen. The world’s second-biggest maker of semiconductor equipment said orders for machines that make semiconductors and flat-panel displays almost doubled in the second quarter. Valeo SA climbed 3.3 percent to 20.42 euros. France’s second-largest auto-parts supplier was raised to “outperform” from “underperform” at Cheuvreux. Tenaris, Givaudan Tenaris SA advanced 3.4 percent to 12.69 euros. The world’s biggest maker of seamless steel tubes for pipelines was rated “buy” in new coverage at UBS AG. Givaudan SA gained 1.4 percent to 806.5 Swiss francs after the world’s largest maker of fragrances and flavors said it was confident it will outgrow the underlying market this year. Rising industrial production and a rebound in U.S. employment will push stocks higher around the world, according to Absolute Strategy Research Ltd., the London-based firm that told clients to buy shares in March. Companies will need to re- stock inventories that were depleted more than necessary as consumer spending increases, boosting prices and helping employment recover in the world’s largest economy, said ASR, founded in 2006 by former Merrill Lynch & Co. and UBS strategists. To contact the reporter on this story: Daniela Silberstein in Zurich at dsilberstei2@bloomberg.net.

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