Stock index futures fell on Friday as investors remained skeptical about how much of President Barack Obama's $447 billion proposal to generate U.S. jobs would make it through Congress.

Concerns also lingered about the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis on worries that policymakers were not taking enough action to boost Europe's economies.

Finance chiefs from the Group of 7 richest nations are set to meet on Friday, and the group is under heavy pressure to take action to revive flagging economic growth and calm the biggest confidence crisis in financial markets since the global credit crunch.

Obama challenged Congress on Thursday to enact tax cuts and new spending to revive a stalled job market, but he faces an uphill fight to win over Republicans.

The speech was positive, but there are questions about whether it can get through Congress and how it will all be paid for, said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida. At the same time, while we initially rose on the plan, Europe remains the big, big question for markets.

In China, inflation pulled back in August from a three-year high, while economic activity slowed, underlining expectations the central bank can hold off on further monetary policy tightening in the face of a global economic slowdown.

S&P 500 futures fell 2.1 points and were below 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 slid 53 points and Nasdaq 100 futures lost 2.25 points.

Bank of America Corp officials have discussed slashing roughly 40,000 jobs during the first wave of a restructuring, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the plans. The cuts aim to reduce the bank's workforce of 280,000 over a period of years, the Journal said.

A number of brokerages, including Jefferies, cut price targets on Texas Instruments Inc after the company warned its third-quarter earnings and revenue would be worse than already low expectations as concern about an economic slowdown is stifling demand for products that use its chips.

McDonald's Corp fell 1.6 percent in premarket trading after its August restaurant sales rose less than analysts expected.

U.S. stocks closed sharply lower on Thursday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave no indications that new stimulus measures were in the works to boost the flagging economy.

(Editing by Padraic Cassidy)

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