By Edward Krudy
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures edged lower on Friday after recent advances pushed indexes to multi-year highs and as Wall Street eyed a third week of gains.
The S&P 500, up 4.2 percent so far this month, has doubled in less than two years, the quickest 100 percent jump since the Great Depression.
However, volume has been light in the most recent leg of the rally, with just 6.7 billion shares changing hands Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE Amex and Nasdaq combined -- the second lowest total so far in 2011.
"I've never seen a market like this," said Paul Mendelsohn, chief investment strategist at Windham Financial Services. A market watcher for 35 years, he is taking profits in every area but commodities.
"No matter where we start out in the morning, buyers come in," he said. "I'm showing by every technical and quantitative standard I have, this market is at extreme levels."
S&P 500 futures fell 0.4 point 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 dropped 6 points, and Nasdaq 100 futureslost 3.75 points.
"Everyone I know wants to get into this market suddenly," said Mendelsohn. "They've seen it go up, and they want to be in it."
China raised banks' required reserves by 50 basis points on Friday, showing no let-up in the government's campaign to stamp out stubbornly high inflation.
A Group of 20 meeting in Paris will be on investors' radar screens, as the world's top central bankers take center stage on Friday ahead of the two-day event charged with tackling global imbalances.
Political unrest in the oil-producing Middle East and North Africa region is also likely to be closely monitored, as crowds in Libya, Yemen, Iran and Bahrain took to the streets in anti-government protests.
In company news, U.S.-based alternative share trading platform BATS Global Markets is near a deal to buy peer Chi-X Europe for more than $300 million, a source said.
Chemicals group DuPont
On the earnings front, Campbell Soup Co
European shares on the FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> slipped in early trade, giving up some gains after hitting 29-month closing highs in the last four consecutive sessions.
(Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
