Wall Street stock futures pointed higher Friday as the U.S. government injected US$20 billion into Bank of America and guaranteed losses on over US$400 billion in assets of both Bank of America and Citigroup.

The U.S. government said early Friday that it will invest US$20 billion in Bank of America and protect an asset pool worth US$118 billion. Citigroup meanwhile will be guaranteed on US $301 billion of assets.

Also Friday, Bank of America and Citigroup each reported massive losses for the fourth quarter. Bank of America lost US$1.79 billion, while Citigroup lost US$8.29 billion for Citigroup.

Merrill Lynch, which was acquired by Bank of America in a deal that didn’t close until after the fourth quarter, lost over US$15 billion.

Citigroup also said it would split into two business units, with one unit made up of brokerage and retail asset management, local consumer finance and a special asset pool.

In other earnings news, Intel reported a 90% profit drop, which was in line with analysts’ estimates.

In today’s economic news, U.S. consumer prices fell 0.7% in December on a seasonally adjusted basis compared to the previous month, the Labor Department said Friday, after falling at a record pace in November. Economists had expected a 0.8% decline. U.S. Consumer prices rose just 0.1% in 2008 as a whole.

The U.S. bond market is closing early, at 14:00 ET, ahead of Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, when U.S. financial markets will be closed.

Oil prices continued to fall on Friday, declining two cents to $35.38, in premarket electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Markets rose in Asia and Europe.

In Tokyo, the Japanese Nikkei 225 gained 2.6%.

At midday the, the UK FTSE 100 was up 2.1% in London, Germany’s DAX rose 2.1%, and France’s CAC-40 rose 2.6%.

Toronto stocks closed strongly higher on Thursday, rebounding from yesterday’s heavy losses, on optimism over a US$825 billion stimulus package to revive the troubled U.S. economy.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 191.25 points, or 2.2%, to 8,879.61.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index gave up 5.23 points, or 0.62%, to close at 844.30.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrials finished up 12.35 points, or 0.2%, to 8,212.49 after falling more than 200.

The Nasdaq composite index was up 22.2 points, or 1.5%, to 1,511.84. The S&P 500 added 1.12 points, 0.1%, to 843.74 as

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