Stock futures signal drop as car bailout fails

Highlights:

* At 4:02 a.m. EST S&P 500 March futures, Dow Jones futures and Nasdaq 100 futures were down 2.9 to 3.6 percent.

* Bank of America Corp said on Thursday it plans to eliminate 30,000 to 35,000 jobs over three years, reflecting its pending purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co and weaker business activity stemming from the economic recession.

* Bank of America's shares traded in Frankfurt were down 8.4 percent.

* General Motors shares traded in Frankfurt were down 28 percent, while Ford shares traded in Frankfurt dropped 11 percent.

* GM and Chrysler LLC have warned of potential collapse if they did not receive a bailout. They both said that in the face of their cash crises, they had hired outside advisers to help them explore possible bankruptcy, which they found had too many drawbacks.

* The European auto sector also came under pressure on the news of the failed bailout bid, with the DJ Stoxx European auto index <.SXAP> down 4 percent, Daimler losing 6.6 percent and Michelin off 5 percent, while shares of Japanese carmakers Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T> and Nissan <7201.T> sank 10-11.5 percent in Tokyo overnight.

* Economic data expected on Friday includes retail sales for November, the producer price index numbers, business inventories and consumer sentiment. No major company is due to report results.

* U.S. retail sales fell sharply in November, said economists polled by Reuters, as the U.S. job market worsened and consumers became cautious spenders, while sliding petroleum prices and a slumping global economy probably caused producer prices to fall last month, economists predicted in a Reuters poll.

* Tech shares will be in the spotlight after Alcatel-Lucent gave a pessimistic forecast for the overall 2009 telecoms equipment market, sending its shares down 6 percent.

(Reporting by Blaise Robinson; Editing by Hans Peters)

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