* U.S. stock futures point to a modest recovery at the start of trade. September Dow Jones DJU8, Standard & Poor's and Nasdaq 100 futures are up between 0.2 and 0.3 percent by 0915 GMT. U.S. benchmark indexes .DJI .SPX .IXIC fell by more than 2 percent on Wednesday.

* Among the most actively traded major U.S. stocks in Europe is Cisco Systems (CSCO.O: Quote, Profile, Research), down 0.4 percent from their last Frankfurt close at 13.74 euros (CSCO.F: Quote, Profile, Research), weighed down by comments on Wednesday from the company's CEO, who raised fears of an extended economic downturn.

* Other movers in Europe include Intel (INTC.O: Quote, Profile, Research), which is down 2.1 percent from its last Frankfurt close (INTC.F: Quote, Profile, Research), Dell (DELL.O: Quote, Profile, Research), down 1.7 percent (DELL.F: Quote, Profile, Research), and Hewlett Packard (HPQ.N: Quote, Profile, Research), which is off 1.3 percent (HPQ.F: Quote, Profile, Research).

* A light events calendar includes weekly initial jobless claims data and second-quarter earnings from hotel chain Marriott International (MAR.N: Quote, Profile, Research). Industry bellwether General Electric (GE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) reports second-quarter earnings on Friday.

* The Bush administration has had discussions about contingency plans in the event that giant government-backed mortgage lenders Fannie Mae (FNM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Freddie Mac (FRE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) falter, the Wall Street Journal reported. [nN09417035] * Intel, the world's biggest computer chip maker, said on Thursday it won clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to sell a personal in-home health monitoring system for patients with chronic conditions. [nN10942981] (Reporting by Amanda Cooper; Editing by Quentin Bryar)