Stock index futures were lower Friday, signaling a weak opening on Wall Street after yesterday’s modest gains.

Economic data showed that U.S. import prices rose 1.3% in May after a revised 1.1% increase in April (from 1.6%), with May export prices up 0.6% following a revised 0.4% increase in April (was 0.5%). This is a third straight monthly increase in import prices after posting declines since last August. A University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey is due out shortly before 10 am ET.

Treasuries and the dollar index werfe higher, while gold and oil futures were in negative territory.

On Thursday, the 30-stock Dow Jones industrial average finished higher by 31.90 points, or 0.37%, at 8,770.92. The broad Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was up 5.74 points, or 0.61%, at 944.89. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index added 9.29 points, or 0.50%, to 1,862.37.

Among stocks in the news Friday, Yahoo (YHOO) announced that Tim Morse has been appointed CFO. Morse was previously CFO at Altera (ALTR).

Hartford Financial Services Group (HIG) said Friday that it will sell as much as $750 million of common stock and will accept $3.4 billion in TARP funds. Hartford said it will use the proceeds from the common stock offering for general corporate purposes, including the possible repurchase of outstanding debt.

BlackRock (BLK) announced it has executed a purchase agreement to acquire Barclays Global Investors (BGI), including its ETF platform, iShares, from Barclays (BCS). Under the terms of deal, BLK would acquire BGI in exchange for 37.8 million BLK common shares and $6.6 billion of cash. It says shares will represent a 4.9% voting interest, aggregate 19.9% economic interest in combined firm, which will be renamed BlackRock Global Investors.

Rambus (RMBS) reached a tentative settlement with the European Commission to resolve the pending case against the company. Under the proposed resolution, the Commission would make no finding of liability relative to JEDEC-related charges, and no fine would be assessed against RMBS. Also, RMBS would commit to offer licenses with maximum royalty rates for certain memory types and memory controllers on a forward-going basis.

National Semiconductor (NSM) posted a narrower-than-expected loss for its fiscal fourth quarter, and issued upside guidance for its fiscal first quarter after the company said it has seen a pick up in orders. National Semiconductor posted a loss of $0.28 per share in its fiscal fourth quarter, $0.10 better than the First Call consensus forecast. The net loss of $64 million includes a pre-tax restructuring charge of $116 million primarily related to severance and asset impairments. Revenues fell 39.2% year-over-year to $280.8 million, but beat the consensus estimate of $273.4 million.

Hoku Scientific (HOKU) said, due to challenges in the credit and equity markets, securing certain sources of funding has proven challenging. It also said downward pressure on PV industry and spot market price of polysilicon has affected demand for contract-based polysilicon sales. Because of difficulties in raising capital, the company said that if it doesn’t receive any such additional financing, it may not have sufficient funds to complete construction of its polysilicon plant, or continue as a going concern for next 12 months.