(Reuters) - Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, the Nasdaq 100 and the S&P 500 share indexes are down 2.2-3.8 percent, pointing to a sharply lower start on Wall Street.
* The U.S. government is weighing guaranteeing billions of dollars in bank debt and temporarily insuring all U.S. bank deposits, in a bid to unfreeze bank lending and staunch massive losses in equity markets, The Wall Street Journal reported.
* The New York Times said that U.S. and British officials appeared to be converging on a similar blueprint to stem financial chaos involving injections of government money into banks in return for ownership stakes and guarantees of repayment for various types of loans.
* On the companies front, General Electric
* U.S. stocks plummeted on Thursday as investors bet recent moves by authorities worldwide to thaw frozen credit markets would not be enough to avert a global recession. Japan's Nikkei <.N225> plunged 9.6 percent on Friday, while European stocks sank over 10 percent before paring losses.
* Commodity stocks are set to slide, with crude prices tumbling more than 5 percent to trade below $82 a barrel and metals prices registering steep losses.
(Reporting by Atul Prakash)
