NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock futures bucked a sell-off on global markets Friday and banks were among the biggest gainers.
Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 60 points to 12,562. Standard & Poor's 500 futures gained 6.5 points to 1,324.80 and Nasdaq futures rose 8 points to 2,559.75.
Morgan Stanley rose more than 2 percent with only a two-notch ratings cut from Moody's, because many people had feared it would be worse. Moody's lowered ratings on some of the world's biggest banks late Thursday. JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Citigroup all rose in premarket trading.
Markets in the U.S. appear to be bouncing back from their second-worst decline of the year, as investors fled on gloomy jobs and housing numbers.
The news from abroad was not good either, with poor manufacturing numbers out of China and business optimism fading in Germany, Europe's economic powerhouse.
European and Asian stocks fell again on Friday.
Germany, France, Italy and Spain are meeting in Rome to smooth the way ahead of the European Union summit later this month, but there is little to suggest unity on solving the continent's debt crisis.
Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.6 percent to 5,532.76, while the French CAC 40 eased 0.2 percent to 3,105.52 and the German DAX 30 blue chips index fell 0.5 percent to 6,312.81.
In Asian trading, Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.2 percent to 8,802.54 and South Korea's Kospi slid 2.1 percent to 1,848.57. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 1 percent to 19,067.51 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 1 percent at 4,046.70. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Indonesia fell. Markets in mainland China, which tumbled Thursday, were closed for a public holiday.
Also on Friday, Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, and the lone dissenter to the Federal Reserve's latest economic stimulus effort, said that the central bank's action will do little to foster growth and may increase the odds of accelerating inflation.
"A significant increase in inflation could threaten the Fed's credibility," said Lacker, adding that inflationary pressure would make it difficult to reach long-term goals, such as lowering unemployment.
