U.S. stock futures pared losses after initial jobless claims decreased more than economists estimated, helping the contracts recover from an earlier slide triggered by a surge in oil prices amid Libya’s uprising. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index expiring next month slipped 0.2 percent to 1,302.3 at 8:55 a.m. in New York after tumbling as much as 0.9 percent. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slipped 12 points, or 0.1 percent, to 12,082. Applications for jobless benefits decreased by 22,000 to 391,000 in the week ended Feb. 19, Labor Department figures showed today. Economists forecast claims would drop to 405,000, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. Claims have fallen in three of the past four weeks, pushing down the monthly average to the lowest level since July 2008. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Regan at mregan12@bloomberg.net

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