Futures dip a day after S&P rally; Disney weighs

Thomson ReutersTraders work on the floor of the NYSE

By Tanya Agrawal

(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures edged lower on Wednesday, a day after S&P 500 enjoyed its best day in two months and as Dow component Walt Disney reported a rare earnings miss.

* Disney shares were down 4.9 percent at $101.31 in premarket trading after the company’s result missed expectations as advertising and subscriptions declined at ESPN.

* On Tuesday, the S&P 500 and Dow Jones notched their biggest daily percentage gain since March 11 and the Nasdaq its biggest since April 13, helped by a jump in oil and a rally in Amazon .

* Tuesday’s gains appeared to breathe new life into a two-month rally that had petered out in mid-April and left the S&P 500 with an increase of just about 2 percent for 2016.

* Still, traders are struggling to find new catalysts to propel the market back toward record highs due to underwhelming first-quarter earnings and mixed economic data that provides little clarity on the path of Federal Reserve’s rate-hike path.

* First-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies have mostly beat analysts’ expectations, but are still estimated to have fallen 5.4 percent from a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters data.

* Fossil slumped 32.5 percent to $27.05, set to open at a six-and-a-half year low after the watch retailer cut its 2016 forecast.

* Office Depot fell 36.3 percent to $3.89 after terminating its planned merger with Staples . Staples was down 13.6 percent at $8.95.

* Electronic Arts was up 6.9 percent at $69.01 after the video-game publisher reported strong quarterly results.

Futures snapshot at 7:17 a.m. ET (1117 GMT):

* S&P 500 e-minis were down 4 points, or 0.19 percent, with 146,579 contracts traded.

* Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 8 points, or 0.18 percent, on volume of 18,770 contracts.

* Dow e-minis were down 45 points, or 0.25 percent, with 24,404 contracts changing hands.

(Reporting by Tanya Agrawal; Editing by Savio D’Souza)

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