New York: US stock-index futures dropped after the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index’s sixth advance in seven days helped claw back some of the declines from an equity rout that started in August.

S&P 500 E-mini contracts expiring in December fell 0.4 per cent to 1,980 at 7:22am in New York. Dow Jones Industrial Average contracts lost 58 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 16,756 today, while those on the Nasdaq 100 Index dropped 0.4 per cent.

EMC Corp. soared 6.9 per cent in early New York trading after people familiar with the matter said Dell Inc. is in talks to combine with all or part of the company. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV rose 1.5 per cent after reaching a tentative agreement with United Auto Workers to avert a strike. Alcoa Inc. fell before the company posts earnings after markets close Thursday, unofficially kicking off the reporting season.

“We moved up, and now we are waiting for what comes out on the companies side,” said Heinz-Gerd Sonnenschein, a strategist at Deutsche Postbank AG in Bonn, Germany. “It’s a very volatile market at the moment with no long lasting trend. Investors are having very specific looks at stocks with good news and bad news, and looking less at the market as a whole.”

The benchmark S&P 500 reached its highest level since August 20 yesterday. Biotechnology and energy companies led the rebound, with the latter extending their longest rally since 2013. The two sectors have been two of the most volatile in recent weeks, and their gains have led to the longest streak of volatility declines since February 2014.

Investors will look to the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s Sept. 16-17 meeting, released later today, along with data on weekly jobless claims — which have been seesawing around decade lows — to get a better sense of the strength of the US labour market. The odds of a rate hike this month are now just 8 per cent, with March the first month with a chance of lift-off above 50 per cent.

Companies reporting earnings next week include Johnson & Johnson, Intel Corp. and JPMorgan Chase and Co. Analysts project earnings for S&P 500 members dropped 6.9 per cent in the third quarter. Still, a Fed measure of corporate income has posted its biggest quarterly increase since 2012, suggesting the broader picture for profits may be skewed by downgrades at energy producers combating weak oil prices.

Among other shares active in premarket trading, Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. jumped 20 per cent after saying one of its drugs met its main goal in a patient study.

— Bloomberg