wall st futures point to recovery

* Dow Jones futures and S&P 500 futures rose
0.5 and 0.7 percent respectively on Thursday, suggesting scope
for a recovery after Wednesday's losses. But Nasdaq futures
were down 0.3 percent.

* The U.S. administration is weighing a roughly $40 billion
proposal to help forestall housing foreclosures, the Wall Street
Journal reported. [ID:nBNG389655]

* After Wednesday's close, Amgen Inc shares jumped
7.5 percent to $53.40 when the biotech company reported
quarterly earnings, while Amazon.com fell 13.4 percent
and traded 13 percent lower in Frankfurt after the
online retailer's fourth-quarter revenue expectations fell short
of analyst expectations.

* U.S. stocks tumbled to 5-year lows on Wednesday as
investors grappled with an increasingly dire outlook for the
global economy following a raft of disappointing profits and
outlooks for major U.S. companies.

* Major S&P 500 <.SPX> companies due to release earnings on
Thursday include Microsoft , Bristol-Myers Squibb
, Dow Chemical Co. , Eli Lilly and United
Parcel Service .

* The Federal Reserve's Consumer Advisory Council meets at
1300 GMT to discuss the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of
2008, and former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan testifies in
Congress at 1400 GMT on "The Role of Federal Regulators".