* Crude oil prices rise 1.6 percent
* Forecasts from National Semi, Texas Instruments to weigh
* Futures up: Dow 20 pts; S&P 4.2 pts; Nasdaq 7.25 pts (Updates prices, adds quote, byline)
By Rodrigo Campos
NEW YORK, Sept 10 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures rose slightly on Friday in low volume and were up for the seventh day in eight, buoyed by a jump in crude oil prices.
U.S. crude approached a three-week high near $76 per barrel after record U.S. inventories were offset by a forced shutdown of the biggest pipeline supplying Canadian oil to refineries in the Midwest and to a key storage hub in Oklahoma..
"Higher oil prices have at least for now translated to higher stock prices," said Rick Meckler, president of LibertyView Capital Management in New York.
"The market has been looking to rally back from what was a very difficult August. The trend so far has been up, and with markets as quiet as this most people start the day with an upside bias," he said.
Technology shares could limit gains, however, after chipmakers National Semiconductor Corp and Texas Instruments Inc issued quarterly financial targets that stoked investor worries about a sluggish economy.
S&P 500 futures rose 4.2 points and were above 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 20 points and Nasdaq 100 futures added 7.25 points.
U.S.-traded shares of Nokia Corp, the world's top cellphone maker, surged 4.9 percent premarket after the company said it hired Microsoft Corp's Stephen Elop to replace Nokia's embattled chief executive..
Video game publishers will be in focus after data showed U.S. retail sales of video game equipment and software fell 10 percent in August, according to research group NPD, as the industry continued a months-long slump.
U.S. stocks rose on Thursday after stronger-than-expected jobs and trade data helped lift optimism about the economic recovery, although sentiment was fragile as investors fretted over European banks. Reports that Deutsche Bank plans to raise capital pressured European markets lower on Friday.