U.S. stock-index futures contracts swung between gains and losses, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index poised for its third straight monthly advance, before reports on house prices and consumer confidence. Seagate Technology Plc may decline, following a 5.6 percent slump in after-hours trading yesterday, as the world’s largest maker of disk drives ended talks to be taken private. Interactive Brokers Group Inc. advanced 1.7 percent in European trading after the electronic market maker and securities firm declared a special dividend. Futures on the S&P 500 expiring in December fell less than 0.1 percent to 1,186.3 at 11:03 a.m. in London. The gauge has risen 0.4 percent so far this month. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures lost 0.1 percent to 11,031 today, and Nasdaq-100 Index futures slipped 0.1 percent to 2,144. “Nervous investors will be looking at macro data this afternoon to restore some confidence,” said Giles Watts, the head of equities at City Index Ltd. in London. The reports “should give a lead to the health of the U.S. recovery.” The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 U.S. cities climbed 1 percent in September from a year earlier, the smallest gain since February, when the market began to recover following a three-year drop, according to the median forecast of 28 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Other reports may show consumer confidence rose and businesses expanded. Debt Crisis The S&P 500 has fallen 3.1 percent since reaching a two- year high on Nov. 5 on speculation China will raise interest rates to tame inflation and amid concern the sovereign-debt crisis will spread to southern Europe. The index is still 16 percent above this year’s low reached on July 2 as companies reported better-than-estimated profits and the Federal Reserve’s plan to increase asset purchases lifted stock prices. Italian and Spanish government bonds slumped today as Europe’s debt crisis intensified. The decline pushed yield spread between 10-year Italian securities and similar-maturity German debt to more than 200 basis points for the first time since 1997. Seagate tumbled 5.6 percent to $13.03 in extended New York trading yesterday after saying it ended talks to be taken private. Talks with TPG Capital collapsed after the buyout firm wasn’t able to find other partners to raise enough equity financing for the takeover, according to a person familiar with the matter, who declined to be identified because the negotiations were private. Seagate didn’t trade in Europe today. Google Investigation Google Inc. slipped 0.8 percent to $577.38 in Germany. European Union regulators said they will investigate the owner of the world’s biggest search engine for allegedly demoting rival services in its search results and for restrictions that may prevent websites accepting some competing ads. Interactive Brokers gained 1.7 percent to $17.86 in German trading after the company declared a special cash dividend of $1.79 a share. Baldor Electric Co. may climb after ABB Ltd., the Swiss maker of factory robots and electrical equipment, agreed to buy the company for about $3.1 billion in cash to expand in the North American market for industrial motors and drives. Baldor shares did not trade in Europe or the U.S. today. To contact the reporter on this story: Adam Haigh in London at ahaigh1@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Merritt at dmerritt1@bloomberg.net.

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