Stock index futures pointed to a higher open for equities on Wall Street on Friday, with futures for the S&P 500, for the Dow Jones and for the Nasdaq 100 rising 0.3 to 0.6 percent.

* The Labor Department will release at 1330 GMT the November Consumer Price Index. Economists expect a 0.1 percent rise, compared with a 0.1 percent drop in October.

* Fitch Ratings, the third-biggest of the major credit rating agencies, on Thursday downgraded Goldman Sachs , Bank of America Corp and five other large banks based in Europe and the United States, citing increased challenges in the financial markets.

* The Labor Department issues at 1330 GMT Real Earnings data for November. Economists predict real earnings to rise 0.1 percent, versus a 0.3 percent increase in October.

* U.S. lawmakers on Thursday reached a tentative deal to fund an array of government agencies through September 30 and avert shutting down many of Washington's operations starting this weekend.

* Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext have stepped up their lobbying with an advertising campaign to pressure EU regulators and secure approval for their $9 billion merger.

* Research In Motion posted a sharp drop in profit on Thursday, offered a dismal outlook for BlackBerry shipments around Christmas and delayed the likely arrival of a make-or-break overhaul of its smartphones, sending its shares tumbling.

* Private equity firm Apollo Global Management said its affiliates would buy Belgian chemicals company Taminco for around 1.1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) from CVC Capital Partners.

* Shares in Adobe Systems were up 6.8 percent after the bell on Thursday as the company reported results.

* Cameron International Corp said BP Plc had agreed to indemnify the company for current and future compensatory claims associated with the Deepwater Horizon incident.

* U.S. insurance broker Brown & Brown Inc said it had agreed to buy Arrowhead General Insurance Agency Inc for $395 million in cash.

* Delta Petroleum Corp filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection early on Friday, a month after the U.S. oil and gas producer warned about its liquidity issues.

* United Technologies Corp said on Thursday it expected to increase profits by 6 to 10 percent in 2012, despite a slowing U.S. recovery and what it expects to be a prolonged slump in Europe.

* European stocks <.FTEU3> rose on Friday, extending the previous session's tentative rebound from a week-long drop, helped by better-than-feared U.S. macro data, but lingering concerns over the euro zone debt crisis kept gains in check.

* The yuan jumped to a record high on Friday against the dollar on suspected intervention orchestrated by the central bank, its most explicit action in three months to deter speculators from betting on a fall in the currency.

* U.S. stocks rose on Thursday, as signs of strength in the economy and higher-than-expected profit at FedEx outweighed more warnings about Europe.

* The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was up 45.33 points, or 0.38 percent, at 11,868.81. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> was up 3.93 points, or 0.32 percent, at 1,215.75. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> was up 1.70 points, or 0.07 percent, at 2,541.01.

(Reporting by Atul Prakash; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)