Earnings news will be a focus in the financial sector, with Bank of America (BAC.N) and Morgan Stanley (MS.N) both releasing fourth-quarter results.

Other big names reporting fourth-quarter results include Google (GOOG.O), International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N), Intel Corp (INTC.O) in the technology sector, while second-quarters earnings are due from Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O).

Late on Wednesday, EBay Inc (EBAY.O) reported better-than-expected results, but gave a conservative quarterly sales forecast, warning that a weak European economy may take the gloss off rip-roaring growth in online commerce.

Macro economic news will be in the spotlight to shed some light on economic growth, with U.S. Housing Starts, U.S. weekly jobless claims and U.S. CPI data all due at 1330 GMT, while the Philadelphia Fed Business activity index is due at 1500 GMT.

Morgan Stanley's, head of European oil research predicts BP (BP.L) will likely agree to pay the U.S. Department of Justice $20-$25 billion next month to settle all charges around the Deepwater Horizon rig blast and Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Before approving a new diabetes drug from AstraZeneca (AZN.L) and Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY.N), U.S. drug regulators need further clinical data, possibly including new clinical studies.

Eastman Kodak Co (EK.N) has filed for bankruptcy protection and said it had also obtained a $950 million, 18-month credit facility from Citigroup to keep it going.

European shares inched higher on Thursday on hopes Greece would reach an agreement on a bond swap deal with its private creditors to avoid a messy default and that bank's earnings in the United States would be strong.

Spain drew strong demand at a debt auction which sold more than 6.6 billion euros ($8.46 billion) of bonds with maturities of up to 10 years on Thursday in its first test of market sentiment for euro zone bonds this year.

U.S. stocks jumped to their highest since July on Wednesday as the International Monetary Fund seeks to raise $600 billion to help countries hit by the European debt crisis and forecast-beating earnings from Goldman Sachs.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI rose 0.8 percent, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX added 1.1 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC climbed 1.5 percent.

(Reporting by Joanne Frearson; Editing by Mike Nesbit)

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