Wall Street futures point to weaker open

(Reuters) - U.S. stocks futures fell on Thursday, pointing to weakness on Wall Street for a second-straight session, with persistent concerns over the fiscal situation in Greece seen weighing on investor sentiment.

By 5:15 a.m. EDT, futures for the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq shed 0.4 percent, while futures for the S&P 500 were 0.5 percent lower.

* Investors grew skeptical over Greece's ability to end its debt crisis, with Greek government yield spreads hitting a fresh euro lifetime high of 437 basis points. Greek bank shares <.FTATBNK> plunged 5.7 percent in European trade.

U.S. stocks fell in a broad late-day drop on Wednesday after a top Federal Reserve official said interest rates should not stay low for much longer, giving investors an excuse to take profits.

Thomas Hoenig, president of the Kansas City Fed, reiterated his concern that the Fed's ultra-low interest rate policies could have unintended consequences.

However, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke offered a relatively downbeat view of the economy during a speech in Dallas, suggesting he was in no rush to tighten monetary policy.

Among the movers after the bell on Wednesday, Forest Laboratories Inc shares fell more than 9 percent in extended trading after a U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel rejected a lung drug proposed by Forest and Nycomed.

Hot Topic Inc shares rose more than 14 percent following the bell on Wednesday after the retailer declared a special one-time dividend with its report on March sales.

Shares of UAL Corp , parent of United Airlines, jumped more than 4 percent following bell on Wednesday after the New York Times reported the company was in merger talks with US Airways Group Inc , citing people briefed on the matter.

U.S. retailers are hoping that an early Easter holiday helped draw more shoppers into their stores in March, with top store chains from Target to Macy's due to report their monthly results on Thursday.

Also of interest will be U.S. weekly jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. EDT.

Investors are likely to focus U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's talks in Beijing on Thursday against a background of fresh signals from Chinese policymakers that they might be paving the way to let the yuan resume its rise.

Former top Citigroup officials, including former CEO Chuck Prince and former director Robert Rubin, are scheduled to discuss subprime lending and securitization, and government sponsored entities, such as Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, at the second day of a three-day public hearing by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in Washington.

Apple is set to host an event to show off the newest operating system software for its iPhone, as the company prepares for a widely expected launch of its next generation smartphone later this year.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> index of top shares fell 1.3 percent, while the euro inched closer to this year's low against the dollar on jitters over Greece's fiscal woes.

(Reporting by Harpreet Bhal; editing by Karen Foster)