By Angela Moon
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures cut losses and turned positive shortly before the market open on Thursday as oil prices fell below $100 a barrel.
S&P 500 index futures, off as much as 8 points earlier in the morning, added 1.3 points as U.S. crude oil futures eased to $99.63 a barrel. Prices had hit $101 on mounting fears the unrest in Libya could spread to other major producers in the region, including top exporter Saudi Arabia.
"Trading volume on Wall Street has been solid for the past two days, a signal that we have entered a correction and motivated sellers are taking profits," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Asset Management in Bedford Hills, New York.
"But this is a correction that is driven by the situation in the Middle East and North Africa, so if the problem goes away we may be able to turn course."
S&P 500 futures rose 0.8 point and were in line with fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures gained 7 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures added 6.5 points.
(Reporting by Angela Moon; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
