By Maud van Gaal and Michael Patterson Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock-index futures advanced as earnings from Apple Inc. and Texas Instruments Inc. that beat analysts’ estimates overshadowed Qatar’s move to sell a stake in Barclays Plc. Apple, maker of the iPhone and Macintosh computers, rose 5.9 percent in pre-market New York trading and Texas Instruments, the second-largest U.S. chipmaker, climbed 2 percent. DuPont Co., the third-biggest chemical maker, advanced 2.5 percent in Germany after third-quarter profit topped analysts’ projections. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index expiring in December added 0.3 percent at 12:11 p.m. in London. Gains in the U.S. were limited and European shares fell as Qatar Holding LLC said it would sell more than 379 million shares of Barclays, the U.K.’s second-biggest bank. Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index slipped 0.1 percent. “A number of earnings reports, especially from technology companies, came in better than expected,” said Michel van der Stee, a Den Bosch, Netherlands-based strategist at Van Lanschot Bankiers NV, which oversees about $35 billion. “We had anticipated a considerable recovery of profits as the underlying economy improved. Looking ahead to 2010, however, we expect some setbacks.” The MSCI Emerging Markets Index of developing-country shares climbed 0.3 percent, heading for the highest closing level in 14 months, as Chinese shares rallied on increased confidence economic growth is rebounding. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index advanced 0.9 percent for the best gain in eight days. Yen Gains The yen rose against the dollar and the euro after Japanese Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii repeated his reluctance to intervene in the foreign-exchange markets to halt the currency’s gains. Crude oil fell from a one-year high above $80 a barrel after OPEC said it wouldn’t be comfortable with oil at $100. Apple advanced to $201 in New York as back-to-school orders for iPhones, iPods and Macintosh computers fueled a 47 percent increase in fourth-quarter net income. Texas Instruments rose to $23.98. The second-largest U.S. chipmaker said earnings will be 42 cents to 50 cents a share this quarter on sales of $2.78 billion to $3.02 billion. Analysts predicted profit of 40 cents a share on revenue of $2.79 billion, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Pfizer Inc. climbed 1.1 percent to $18.18. The world’s biggest drugmaker posted adjusted third-quarter profit of 51 cents a share, beating the 48-cent average of analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Earnings Tally DuPont reported a third-quarter profit of 45 cents a share, beating analysts’ estimates of 33 cents, as job cuts and lower raw-material costs more than offset lower sales. The shares gained to $35.48 in German trading. Companies in the S&P 500 will report a ninth straight quarter of declining profits, the longest streak since the Great Depression, before returning to growth in the final three months of the year, analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg show. Thirty-six of the 45 companies that have reported earnings since Oct. 7 including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Google Inc. surpassed analysts’ projections, according to Bloomberg data. More than 130 S&P 500 companies are scheduled to report this week, Bloomberg data show. Coca-Cola Co., Pfizer Inc., Caterpillar Inc. and Yahoo! Inc. will announce today. The S&P 500 has rallied 62 percent from a 12-year low in March on signs the economy is emerging from the worst slump in seven decades. Builders probably broke ground in September on the most houses in 10 months, showing further stabilization in the industry at the heart of the recession, economists said before a government report at 8:30 a.m. in Washington. Home Construction A Commerce Department report today may show work began on 610,000 homes at an annual rate in September, up 2 percent from the previous month, according to the median estimate of 76 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Building permits, an indicator of future construction, probably also climbed. Figures from the Labor Department at 8:30 a.m. may show wholesale prices fell 0.1 percent last month after jumping 1.7 percent in August, according to the survey median. Excluding food and energy, prices may have increased 0.1 percent compared with a 0.2 percent gain in August. Barclays lost 4.6 percent to 364.5 pence in London. Qatar will first exercise warrants at 197.775 pence, the firm said today, after shares of Barclays almost quadrupled in the past eight months. The Doha-based arm of the Qatar Investment Authority would make more than 630 million pounds ($1 billion) on the transaction at today’s market price.

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