Stock-index futures gain, indicating an S&P 500 rebound

U.S. stock-index futures advanced, indicating the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will advance after slipping from a record.

DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. soared 27% in early New York trading after people briefed on the matter said Hasbro Inc. is in talks to acquire the film studio. Cisco Systems (CSCO) Inc. dropped 1.1% after profit and revenue forecasts fell short of estimates. NetApp Inc. fell 3.1% after forecasting earnings below analyst projections.

Futures on the S&P 500 expiring in December added 0.3% to 2,042.4 at 6:05 a.m. in New York. The equity index retreated 0.1% yesterday, after gaining for five straight sessions. Dow Jones Industrial Average contracts rose 46 points, or 0.3%, to 17,623 today.

“Investors are back to the buy-the-dip mentality,” Ion-Marc Valahu, a co-founder and fund manager at Clairinvest in Geneva, wrote in an email. “The rebound has been rock solid, and nobody wants to miss the Christmas rally going into year-end.”

The benchmark has advanced 9.4% from a six-month low in October amid better-than-expected earnings and economic data that boosted confidence the U.S. economy is weathering a global slowdown.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Kohl’s Corp. are among the seven S&P 500 companies reporting earnings today. Of those members that have already reported, 80% have beaten earnings projections while 60% have beaten sales estimates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

DreamWorks Surges

DreamWorks Animation surged 27% to $28.45. DreamWorks, led by Jeffrey Katzenberg, is asking for more than $30 a share from Hasbro, said one of the people. The discussions are preliminary, the people said.

Cisco Systems dropped 1.1% to $24.83. Sales will climb no more than 7% in the quarter ending in January, short of analysts’ projections for 8% growth. Profit, excluding some items, won’t reach more than 52 cents a share, compared with the 53 cent estimate from analysts.

NetApp fell 3.1% to $41. The data storage company forecast adjusted earnings per share to reach a maximum of 79 cents in the third quarter, missing analysts’ estimate of 80 cents.