Stock index futures mixed ahead of last 2008 session

Highlights:

* At 3:56 a.m. EST S&P 500 futures were down 0.1 percent, Dow Jones futures were down 0.06 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures were up 0.04 percent.

* Investors could find some relief in news that the U.S. Federal Reserve will move forward aggressively with an effort to drive down mortgage costs, setting a goal of buying $500 billion in mortgage-backed securities by mid-2009. The central bank said it would start buying the securities in early January under a program announced last month.

* Energy shares could feel the pinch of lower oil. Crude prices fell below $39 a barrel on Wednesday, closing out its worst year ever after falling 60 percent, with a rapid reversal in the economic outlook having brought it crashing back from a mid-year record high.

* U.S. stocks climbed on Tuesday after the government expanded its bailout of the auto industry, bolstering hopes lawmakers would continue to take steps to minimize the severity of the year-long recession. The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 2.2 percent, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> gained 2.4 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> added 2.7 percent.

* The Dow is down 34.7 percent in 2008, but has gained 16.4 percent since reaching a floor on Nov 21, while the S&P 500 is down 39.3 percent this year, but up 20.2 percent since Nov 21.

* American International Group Inc is prepared to ask the U.S. Federal Reserve to relax rules on its $60 billion-plus disposals program to allow bidders to use a greater proportion of shares to pay for its assets, the Financial Times said.

* Online sales for the holiday period up to December 23 fell 3 percent from the same period last year, marking the first decline in online spending since comScore Inc started tracking online sales in 2001.

* Dell Inc's president of global operations, Michael Cannon, and chief marketing officer, Mark Jarvis will leave their roles in moves expected to be announced soon, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people briefed on the matter.

* Mobile phone maker Motorola Inc said on Tuesday it will lay off 400 more employees in the fourth-quarter than it originally planned, resulting in additional charges.

* Morgan Stanley's top property dealmaker in China, Garth Peterson, has resigned, sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

* Bayer Healthcare LLC, a unit of Bayer AG filed a patent-infringement lawsuit in a U.S. court against Abbott Laboratories relating to the drug Humira, Abbot's top-selling product. * Viacom Inc on Tuesday said it will pull its cable television networks, including Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and MTV, off Time Warner Cable if the companies do not reach a deal on carriage fees by January 1.

* U.S. truck and engine maker Navistar International Corp posted a quarterly net loss on Tuesday, reflecting asset impairment charges, but results before one-time items were better than Wall Street expected.

(Reporting by Blaise Robinson; Editing by Hans Peters)

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