* EU approves 85 billion euro plan for Ireland
* Christmas shopping season off to healthy start
* S&P futures rise 4.60 points, to trade at 1,188.00
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NEW YORK, Nov 28 (Reuters) - S&P 500 stock index futures rose at the start of trade on Sunday after the European Union approved an 85 billion euro ($115 billion) lifeline for debt-strapped Ireland.
Nervousness about Ireland and the possibility it could lead to bigger problems in the euro zone as it works its way through a sovereign debt crisis 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.
"As markets open we will get a sense of whether (investors) believe this is a stopgap measure or if it has viability," said Quincy Krosby, a market strategist at Prudential Financial in Newark, New Jersey.
S&P 500 futures
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]
The euro
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.
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]
In a half-day session on Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> dropped 95.28 points, or 0.85 percent, to end at 11,092. The Standard & Poor's 500 <.SPX> slipped 8.95 points, or 0.75 percent, to 1,189.40 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> lost 8.56 points, or 0.34 percent, to 2,534.56. ($1 = 0.7539 euro) (Reporting by Chris Sanders, editing by Matthew Lewis and Marguerita Choy)