Empresas y finanzas

Stock futures dip on summit skepticism, JPMorgan eyed



    NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock futures fell on Thursday as investors were skeptical that concrete measures would be agreed upon at the latest European Union summit to tackle the region's debt crisis.

    * Shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co dropped 5.4 percent in premarket trading in the wake of a New York Times report projecting that losses from a recent botched trade could reach $9 billion, more than four times the original estimate.

    * EU leaders go into a meeting on Thursday more openly divided than at any time since the euro crisis began, with Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel showing no sign of relenting in her refusal to back other countries' debts.

    * Yields on 10-year and five-year Italian government bonds in the secondary market pared an earlier rise after Rome sold near the top of the range of its planned issuance. However, Spanish benchmark 10-year yields hovered near the 7 percent level that forced other highly indebted countries to seek bailouts.

    * Traders awaited U.S. data on weekly jobless claims and the final reading of first-quarter gross domestic product, both due at 8:30 a.m. EDT.

    * S&P 500 futures fell 6.5 points and were below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 66 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures lost 15 points.

    * The board of News Corp approved in principle splitting the $60 billion media conglomerate into separate publishing and entertainment businesses, a person familiar with the situation said.

    * Commodity prices fell as the U.S. dollar strengthened against the euro, possibly hurting prices of stocks in the materials and energy sectors.

    (Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Bernadette Baum)