US futures point to mild rise; techs fall in Europe

* 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), down 0.4 percent from their last Frankfurt close at 13.74 euros (CSCO.F), 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), which is down 2.1 percent from its last Frankfurt close (INTC.F), Dell (DELL.O), down 1.7 percent (DELL.F), and Hewlett Packard (HPQ.N), which is off 1.3 percent (HPQ.F).

* A light events calendar includes weekly initial jobless claims data and second-quarter earnings from hotel chain Marriott International (MAR.N). Industry bellwether General Electric (GE.N) 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) and Freddie Mac (FRE.N) 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)