By Alexis Xydias and Sapna Maheshwari Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock futures rose, indicating the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index may rebound from its biggest weekly drop since May, as Ford Motor Co. reported earnings that beat estimates and investors speculated that a report will show manufacturing expanded at the fastest rate in three years. Ford rallied 8.6 percent in pre-market New York trading. Alcoa Inc., General Electric Co. and Procter & Gamble Co. gained. CIT Group Inc. tumbled after the 101-year-old commercial lender filed for bankruptcy. Futures on the S&P 500 expiring in December added 0.5 percent to 1,038.50 at 8:46 a.m. in New York. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gained 0.4 percent to 9,706 and Nasdaq-100 Index futures increased 0.2 percent to 1,669.5. The S&P 500 slid 4 percent last week as lower-than- estimated new-home sales and a drop in consumer spending added to speculation that the seven-month rally outpaced prospects for an economic recovery. The losses came even as more companies beat analysts’ projections for third-quarter earnings. “This is the post-Halloween pick-up,” said Burt White, chief investment officer at LPL Financial in Boston, which oversees $234 billion. “Ford’s earnings today were very, very good. I think that a lot of folks were concerned about the CIT bankruptcy, but the market is kind of shaking it off pretty resoundingly.” Of 332 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported quarterly earnings since Oct. 7, 278 have beaten estimates while 50 have disappointed, according to Bloomberg data. The ratio in sales is less buoyant, with 191 companies exceeding predictions and 137 lagging behind. Earnings Forecasts Wall Street analysts are forecasting S&P 500 earnings will increase 25 percent in 2010, the fastest growth in two decades. Investors are paying the lowest so-called price-to-earnings growth ratios since 1995, according to Bloomberg data. The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index probably rose to 53 in October, according to the median forecast of 62 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Another report may show pending home sales in September were unchanged, the first time since January they didn’t increase. Non-manufacturing businesses make up almost 90 percent of the economy and 50 is the dividing line between expansion and contraction in the ISM index. The Tempe, Arizona-based group’s report is due at 10 a.m. New York time. Pending home sales, which jumped 6.4 percent in August, are due from the National Association of Realtors at the same time. ‘Feed Through’ “There has been underlying economic activity that has to feed through to the market,” Georgina Taylor, an equity strategist at Legal & General Group Plc in London, which oversees $456 billion worldwide, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. Investors need economic and earnings data to start beating estimates “to get convinced that we are actually on track for the recovery to go into next year,” Taylor said. Ford, the only major U.S. automaker to avoid bankruptcy, gained 8.6 percent to $7.60 in New York. The company reported third-quarter per-share profit excluding extraordinary items of 26 cents, beating the 20-cent loss estimated by analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Alcoa, the largest U.S. aluminum producer, increased 1.5 percent to $12.61. GE, the world’s biggest maker of power-plant turbines, rose 0.7 percent to $14.36. Procter & Gamble, the largest consumer-products company, climbed 1.1 percent to $58.61. CIT, which saw its funding dry up in the credit crunch, tumbled to 42 cents from 72 cents. The company filed for bankruptcy in an effort to cut $10 billion in debt following a failed debt exchange and U.S. taxpayer bailout. CIT listed $71 billion in assets and $64.9 billion in liabilities in a Chapter 11 petition yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. The Treasury Department said the government probably won’t recover much, if any, of the $2.3 billion in taxpayer money that went to CIT.

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