Stock futures point to dip

Highlights:

* At 5:14 a.m. EST, futures for the S&P 500, Dow Jones and Nasdaq 100 were down between 0.2 and 0.4percent.

* The bulk of U.S. retailers report same-store sales for the month of December, which are expected to confirm that holiday shopping was the weakest in nearly 40 years and give a view to some company profits after they slashed prices to sell their merchandise.

* Analysts expect the dismal sales will require retail chains to cut additional jobs and shutter more stores, and could force some into seeking bankruptcy protection in early 2009.

* Investors were also keeping a close eye at the escalating conflict in the Middle East. Several rockets fired from Lebanon struck northern Israel on Thursday, slightly wounding two people, in attacks seen as linked to Israel's war on Hamas Islamists in the Gaza Strip.

* Oil gained 1.4 percent, to $43.25 a barrel.

* Lyondell Chemical Co received bankruptcy court approval on Wednesday to access more than $2 billion in interim debtor-in-possession financing and an emergency $100 million loan, saying it had run out of cash.

* EMC Corp , the world's biggest maker of data storage equipment for businesses, said it plans to cut 2,400 jobs, or 6 percent of its staff, to help weather the global recession, and its shares rose 5 percent.

* Dell Inc , the world's No. 2 PC maker, said on Thursday that it will cut about 1,900 of 3,000 jobs at its manufacturing plant in Limerick in the west of Ireland and move some of them to Poland.

* U.S. stocks suffered their sharpest retreat in more than a month on Wednesday after a gloomy private-sector jobs report and a revenue warning from top chip maker Intel Corp rekindled deep concerns about the economy.

* The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> fell 244.68 points, or 2.71 percent, to 8,770.42. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> dropped 28.00 points, or 3 percent, to 906.70. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> tumbled 53.32 points, or 3.23 percent, at 1,599.06.

* It was the largest drop for the Dow since December 1, and the index is now down 31.1 percent from 52 weeks ago.

(Reporting by Blaise Robinson; Editing by Hans Peters)

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