Stock index futures rose on Friday after two days of declines as strong earnings from General Electric and Google boosted investor optimism.

General Electric Co , the world's biggest maker of electric turbines and jet engines, reported better-than-expected earnings, helped by the recovery of its finance arm and a rise in revenue at its industrial units, including a sharp pickup in sales of locomotives.

GE shares rose 4 percent to $19.16 in premarket trade.

It is sparking a good mood for the market today and for the rest of the earnings season. This could lead the market to reverse some losses that we had in the past few days, and it gives momentum to the bull trend again, said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Avalon Partners in New York.

S&P 500 futures rose 4.5 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 26 points and Nasdaq 100 futures gained 6 points.

Shares of Bank of America Corp fell 0.8 percent to $14.43 after the largest U.S. bank by assets reported a second straight quarterly loss, driven by a $2 billion write-down

of its mortgage business.

Google Inc shares were up 1.6 percent at $637.00 in premarket trade after the company reported better-than-expected net revenue for its fourth quarter, after markets closed on Thursday.

U.S. stocks fell for a second day on Thursday as lackluster earnings from technology and materials companies failed to live up to heighten expectations.

Hewlett-Packard Co is shaking up a board criticized by many as dysfunctional, bringing in five new directors, including former eBay Inc chief Meg Whitman, as new CEO Leo Apotheker remakes the company.

In Europe, stronger bank and oil company shares helped indexes bounce back on Friday from losses in the past session on worries about further monetary tightening by China.

(Editing by Padraic Cassidy)

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