Stock futures point to higher start

* World finance leaders gather in Washington on Friday hoping to plot a course beyond the financial crisis but Greece's worsening debt woes served as a stark reminder the global economy remains vulnerable.

* Greece will request the activation of an EU/IMF package on Friday, Greek media said, citing unnamed sources. Greek officials were not immediately available for comment.

* At 10 a.m. ET, Commerce Dept releases new home sales for March. Economists in a Reuters survey forecast a total of 330,000 annualized units, compared with 308,000 units in February.

* Commerce Dept releases March durable goods orders at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists in a Reuters survey expect a 0.3 pct rise in durables orders, against a 0.9 percent increase in February.

* Document management company Xerox is scheduled to announce results. Analysts expect the company to have more than doubled its earnings in the quarter to 13 cents per share from 5 cents in the March quarter of 2009, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data.

* Other companies to announce results include Schlumberger and Johnson Controls.

* Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI) releases at 10:30 a.m. ET its weekly index of economic activity for April 16. In the prior week, the index read 131.2.

* Microsoft Corp beat analysts' estimates with a 35 percent jump in quarterly profit, lifted by sales of Windows 7, but its shares fell more than 3 percent as investors expected the company to benefit more from a recovering technology sector.

* Shares of Amazon.com slid 4.7 percent after the closing bell on Thursday as the company reported quarterly results.

* Goldman Sachs Group Inc was involved as an underwriter and an investor in Lloyds Banking Group Plc's 23.5 billion pound (US$36.1 billion) refinancing in late 2009, the Financial Times said on Thursday, citing four people involved in the capital raising.

* Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta told hedge fund billionaire Raj Rajaratnam about a $5 billion investment in Goldman by Berkshire Hathaway before the deal was made public, the Wall Street Journal said, citing a person close to the situation.

* American Express Co said on Thursday net income more than doubled in the first quarter, as the credit card company continued to lead its competitors out of the slump of the last two years.

* Capital One Financial Corp , a credit card issuer and bank, posted on Thursday a stronger-than-expected first quarter profit of $636.3 million as it set aside less money to cover credit losses.

* Japan's Nikkei average <.N225> slipped 0.3 percent on Friday to mark its third negative week in a row, although support was holding as forecast hikes by companies such as Furukawa Electric <5801.T> helped stem further losses.

* U.S. stocks staged a late-day comeback on Thursday as strong quarterly profits from consumer bellwethers like Starbucks Corp outweighed worries about Greece's shaky finances.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> climbed 9.37 points, or 0.08 percent, to 11,134.29. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> rose 2.73 points, or 0.23 percent, to 1,208.67. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> gained 14.46 points, or 0.58 percent, to 2,519.07.

* European shares bounced back on Friday after steep losses in the previous two sessions, with Volvo soaring after first-quarter profits beat expectations. But banks fell on Greece concerns. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> index of top shares was up 0.8 percent.

(Reporting by Atul Prakash; editing by Karen Foster)

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