Stock index futures flag higher Wall Street open
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Stock index futures flag higher Wall Street open

www.reuters.com   | 15.06.2012.

Reuters - Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Friday, with futures for the S&P 500, Dow Jones industrial average and Nasdaq 100 all up 0.4 percent at 4:25 a.m. EDT (0825 GMT).
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New York Fed manufacturing data for June is due at 1230 GMT; U.S. industrial output at 1315 GMT; and University of Michigan sentiment data at 1355 GMT.

No major U.S. or European firm is due to report earnings.

European shares tracked overnight gains in Asia and the United States on news that the world's major central banks stood ready to provide further monetary stimulus measures after Greece's weekend election to help markets deal with the risk of a Greek exit from the euro zone. .EU .L

Spanish and Italian government bond yields eased on the same news, while the euro held firm against the U.S. dollar.

Brent crude futures rose towards $98 a barrel, extending gains after producer group OPEC agreed to keep its output target unchanged for the second half of the year.

Stocks had jumped on Thursday on news of the central bank plans. .N .T

The Bank of Japan kept monetary policy steady on Friday but pledged to do its utmost to ensure the country's banking system remains stable if a Greek election this weekend ignites fresh global market turmoil.

Britain will pump more than 100 billion pounds ($155.43 billion) into its banking system as it looks to improve the feeding through of credit to the real economy.

Moody's has cut the ratings of 11 European banks and said it would cut again if Greece ditched the euro, kicking off a long-awaited round of downgrades for major European institutions.

The euro zone will not tear up the main targets of Greece's bailout no matter who wins Sunday's elections, but it might consider giving a new government in Athens some leeway on how it reaches them, euro zone officials said.

China on Friday granted conditional approval to U.S. conglomerate United Technologies Corp's (UTX.N) $16.5 billion takeover of aircraft parts maker Goodrich Corp (GR.N), saying Goodrich needed to divest or sell parts of some businesses.

U.S. biotech company Human Genome Sciences (HGSI.O) said on Friday it had set a bid date of July 16 for definitive offers to acquire the company and again urged hostile bidder GlaxoSmithKline GSK.L to join the auction process.

U.S. buyout firms Blackstone Group (BX.N), Carlyle Group (CG.O) and KKR & Co (KKR.N) are talking to banks on potential bids for about half of Australia's Pact, in a deal that could value the privately held packaging company at as much as $1.4 billion, sources said.

Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim's America Movil AMXL.MX (AMX) has agreed to buy a 21 percent stake in Telekom Austria TELA.VI from investor Ronny Pecik, which will eventually give the Mexican group a stake of around 23 percent, it said.

A Chinese state-security official arrested this year on allegations of spying for Washington is suspected to have compromised some of China's U.S. agents in a major setback that angered President Hu Jintao, sources said.

South Korean refiner Hyundai Oilbank, a heavy user of Iranian crude, postponed its planned $2 billion initial public offering.

Sovereign wealth fund Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), money manager BlackRock Inc BLK.N, and twenty other cornerstone investors will buy around 62 percent of Malaysian firm IHH Healthcare's up-to-$2 billion IPO.

Business-software company Yammer Inc agreed to sell itself to Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) for $1.2 billion, according a person familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported.

(Writing by Simon Jessop; editing by Stephen Nisbet)



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