NEW YORK, Nov 23, 2007 (AP) -- U.S. stocks headed for a higher open Friday as investors awaited signs of how well retailers might fare during the holiday shopping season.

Friday's shortened session _ the market closes three hours early at 1 p.m. EST _ will cap a volatile Thanksgiving week. On Wednesday, the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 index each fell more than 1.5 percent, with the Dow giving up more than 200 points.

Also, on Wednesday, the Dow and the S&P 500 fell below their August lows _ breaching a psychological barrier some investors had hoped would be maintained in the latest pullback. The S&P's decline left the index, upon which many investments such as mutual funds are based or measured against, in negative territory for the year.

With no major economic news scheduled to arrive Friday, investors will be searching for any new insights into the health of the economy. In one bright spot, oil prices, which have hovered near the $100 per barrel mark, pulled back.

Light, sweet crude fell to 86 cents to $96.43 per barrel in premarket electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

A modest drop in energy prices won't erase investors' concerns about how well the overall economy will perform in the coming months amid pressure from a weak U.S. housing market, a deterioration of credit and a weak dollar.

Dow industrials futures rose 72, or 0.56 percent, to 12,888.

Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 10.50, or 0.74 percent, to 1,428.30. Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 15.75, or 0.79 percent, to 2,021.25.

Government bonds fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which moves inversely to its price, rose to 4.03 percent from 4.01 percent late Wednesday.

The dollar was lower against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.

Overseas, Britain's FTSE 100 rose 1.08 percent, Germany's DAX index rose 0.34 percent, and France's CAC-40 rose 0.56 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index closed up 2.06 percent. Markets in Japan were closed Friday for a holiday.