Stock index futures signal more gains

PARIS (Reuters) -U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Thursday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.46 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.47 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.51 percent at 1000 GMT.

European stocks were up 0.7 percent in morning trade, extending the previous session's strong gains, as investors watched to see if the European Central Bank would rush through new measures to resolve the euro zone debt crisis.

The European Central Bank is expected to keep unlimited liquidity operations in place for longer with the euro zone debt crisis raging unabated, but analysts say it is unlikely to announce mass new bond purchases on Thursday.

The cost of insuring peripheral euro zone debt against default eased on Thursday ahead of the ECB meeting, while the euro gained ground against the dollar.

Oil was steady near $87 on Thursday after rallying 3 percent in the previous session on encouraging jobs data in top consumer the United States that helped drive prices to their highest in almost three weeks.

Singapore's GIC and OCBC's insurance arm have joined a group led by U.S. private equity firms KKR and TPG Capital in buying Morgan Stanley's 34.3 percent stake in top Chinese investment bank CICC.

General Motors and its Chinese partners sold 196,990 vehicles in China in November, up 11.2 percent from a year earlier, while Toyota Motor <7203.T> said it sold 17 percent more cars in China in November compared with a year earlier.

Costco Wholesale Corp posted a 9 percent rise in November sales at store open at least a year, helped by higher gasoline prices and strengthening foreign currencies.

Dutch mail and logistics firm TNT on Thursday detailed the planned separation of its Express activities from its mail activities and said it would keep a 29.9 percent stake in the Express unit. The move cuts down TNT to its old postal activities and could make Express a takeover target in a new consolidation wave in the global sector in which Fedex and United Parcel Service Inc are big rivals and most growth is in emerging markets such as in Asia.

Economic data on tap for Thursday includes weekly initial jobless claims, pending home sales for October, and retail chain store sales for November.

Companies expected to report quarterly results include Novell Inc , The Kroger Co , Toll Brothers and Del Monte Foods .

The Dow and the S&P 500 scored their biggest gains in three months on Wednesday as efforts to resolve the EU's debt crisis helped push the S&P above 1,200, an important technical level that signals the potential for the rally to continue.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> gained 249.76 points, or 2.27 percent, to 11,255.78. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> rose 25.52 points, or 2.16 percent, to 1,206.07. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> added 51.20 points, or 2.05 percent, to 2,549.43.

(Reporting by Blaise Robinson; Editing by Hans Peters)