US STOCKS-Futures pull back after rally; Apple in focus

NEW YORK, Dec 28 (Reuters) U.S. stock futures pointed to a slightly lower market open on Thursday as investors awaited key economic data and pulled back from a sharp rally in the previous session that pushed the Dow industrials into record territory.

Shares of Apple Computer Inc. were in focus for a second day and off 3 percent in European trading, after the Financial Times reported the company gave chief executive Steve Jobs 7.5 million stock options in 2001 without the required authorization of the company's board.

The report comes after Apple shares fell as much as 6 percent on Wednesday on a report in legal trade publication The Recorder that federal prosecutors were looking at ''apparently falsified'' stock option documents at the company.

Investors were also looking to get a better read on the U.S.

economy after U.S. stocks staged a broad rally on Wednesday, sparked by a government report on new home sales that suggested a possible bottom to the housing market's decline.

December consumer confidence data, November existing home sales and the Chicago Purchasing Managers Index are all due at 10 a.m.

''These three data points are really going to be important today ... and you have some anticipation that existing home sales may not have been as strong as the new home sales,'' said Paul Mendelsohn, chief investment strategist at Windham Financial Services in Charlotte, Vermont. ''Light volume with people being away has really helped the bulls to push this market right through the top. Today's up in the air, we could go up 100 points or we could stay where we are.'' Standard&Poor's 500 futures were down 1.1 points, slightly below 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 were down 13 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures were down 2.75 points.

Economists polled by Reuters expect the Conference Board's index of consumer confidence to have eased to 102 this month from 102.9 in November.

A report from the National Association of Realtors' is expected to show sales of U.S. existing homes declined to a 6.20 million annual pace in November, from a 6.24 million rate in October.

Shares of Alcoa Inc. were up 1.1 percent in European trading after the aluminum producer said members of a Cleveland, Ohio union ratified a four-year labor ckntract to end a two-month strike.

Also on the economic front, the Labor Department reports weekly jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. and the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank releases its December area manufacturing report at 11:00 a.m.

On Wednesday, the Dow Jones industrial average jumped 102.94 points, or 0.83 percent, to end at a record 12,510.57. The Standard&Poor's 500 Index advanced 9.94 points, or 0.70 percent, to finish at 1,426.84. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 17.71 points, or 0.73 percent, to close at 2,431.22.

REUTERS SRS VV1913