Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 are flat to 0.1 percent firmer, pointing to a slightly higher start on Wall Street ahead of U.S. GDP data and a major speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

The second estimate of U.S. second-quarter GDP will be of importance at 8.30 a.m. Economists in a Reuters survey forecast a 1.4 percent annualized rate of growth compared with a 2.4 percent rate in the advance estimate.

At 10 a.m., investors will eye a speech by Bernanke at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He is likely to signal his views about the uncertain prospects for the world's biggest economy but probably won't offer many clues on whether the U.S. central bank will pump in more cash to keep the recovery going.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers releases it final August consumer sentiment index at 1355 GMT. Economists in a Reuters survey expect a reading of 69.6, a repeat of the preliminary August number.

There is little in the way of earnings news on Friday, but Tiffany & Co. is reporting second-quarter figures.

In corporate news, Hewlett-Packard Co raised its bid for data storage company 3PAR Inc

to $1.8 billion, dealing a blow to Dell Inc's $1.6 billion effort to win a rapidly escalating bidding war.

Cybersecurity firm ArcSight Inc has put itself up for sale and could be bought by a technology giant such as Oracle Corp , Hewlett-Packard Co or IBM , The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Boeing Co said on Friday it now expects delivery of the first 787 Dreamliner in the middle of the first quarter 2011, owing to a delay in engine availability.

Canadian insurer Manulife Financial Corp and Switzerland's Ace Ltd are among bidders for New York Life Insurance Co's Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korean assets that are up for sale, sources said, in a deal valued between $800 million and $1 billion.

Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding said on Friday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has rejected its request to fast-track a license application for a drug aimed at combating breast cancer.

The Obama administration's so-called Public-Private Investment Program, which was devised to purge troubled real estate assets from the financial system, has generated an estimated return of 15.5 percent for taxpayers so far, according to the New York Times.

Oil snapped a two-day rally on Friday and was heading for a third straight week of losses as a forecast downgrade in U.S. economic growth fed disquiet over record oil inventories and weak housing and manufacturing data.

European shares fell 0.5 percent on Friday and were on track for a third straight week of losses as investors remained concerned about the pace of economic recovery after recent grim macroeconomic data.

The Dow closed below 10,000 points on Thursday, the first time the Dow has finished below that psychologically important level since July 6.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> fell 0.7 percent, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> shed 0.8 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> lost 1.1 percent.

(Reporting by Joanne Frearson; Editing by Michael Shields)