U.S. stock index futures pointed to a flat to lower open on Wall Street on Friday, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.2 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.02 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.04 percent at 5:11 a.m. ET.

* Intel Corp will be in the spotlight after it posted better-than expected revenue and margins for the fourth quarter and gave a rosy outlook for early 2011, defying worries about the chipmaker's minor role in the booming smartphone and tablet computer market. Its shares traded in Frankfurt were up 2.8 percent, while shares in semiconductor companies rallied on Friday in Japan and Europe.

* Investors awaited results from JPMorgan , which will kick off the banking sector's earnings season. The bank is seen posting lower trading revenues from its investment banking unit compared to the year earlier, while it boosted revenue from debt and equity underwriting.

* The market will also have a lot to digest on the macro front, with a flurry of data including the consumer price index, December retail sales and the Reuters/University of Michigan sentiment.

* Oil and metal prices lost ground on Friday. Alaska's main oil pipeline moved closer to restoring shipments to full volumes, while top metals consumer China's central bank raised lenders' required reserves by 50 basis points on Friday, its seventh increase since early 2009 in a bid to keep up a fierce campaign against quickening inflation.

* French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis hopes to reach a takeover deal that would value U.S. target Genzyme at around $76 per share, or some $20 billion, the French daily newspaper Le Figaro said on Friday.

* U.S. stocks edged lower on Thursday, hurt by a slide in drugmaker Merck and as falling commodities prices hit shares of natural resource companies.

* The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> fell 23.54 points, or 0.20 percent, to 11,731.90. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> dropped 2.20 points, or 0.17 percent, to 1,283.76. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> dipped 2.04 points, or 0.07 percent, to 2,735.29.

(Reporting by Blaise Robinson; Editing by Hans Peters)

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