NEW YORK, Nov 28 (Reuters) - S&P 500 stock index futures rose at the start of trade on Sunday after the EU approved an 85 billion euro ($115 billion) rescue for Ireland.
A healthy start to the Christmas holiday shopping season also helped push futures higher. [ID:nN28204931] The news added to recent data suggesting an improvement in U.S. economic growth and suggested that consumers were willing to open their wallets again.
S&P 500 futures
Nervousness about Ireland and the possibility it could lead to bigger problems in the euro zone has weighed on stocks in recent weeks. News of the rescue could lead to short-term gains, but worries about other weakened euro zone members like Portugal and Spain may also limit early optimism.
The EU also approved a permanent system to resolve Europe's debt crisis, in which investors could gradually share the cost of any future default. Finance ministers from the 16-nation euro zone, anxious to prevent market contagion from engulfing Portugal and Spain, unanimously endorsed an emergency loan package to help Dublin cover bad bank debts and bridge a huge budget deficit. [ID:nLDE6AR03X]
Total retail traffic will have risen 8.7 percent to 212 million shoppers from Thanksgiving Day through Sunday, compared with the same period in 2009, according to the survey from the National Retail Federation. [ID:nUSHOLIDAY] $1 = 0.7539 euro (Reporting by Chris Sanders, editing by Matthew Lewis)