* Oil near two-year high, approaches $91 per barrel
* Data mostly in line with expectations
* Futures off: Dow 6 pts, S&P 1.5 pts, Nasdaq 5 pts (Adds economic data, reaction, updates prices)
By Rodrigo Campos
NEW YORK, Dec 23 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were set to open slightly lower on Thursday following a pre-holiday flurry of economic data as Wall Street approached a fourth straight week of gains.
The reports were mostly in line with expectations, with jobless claims suggesting the unemployment rate will stay stubbornly high. But consumer spending rose for a fifth month and incomes edged up slightly more than forecast, and durable goods orders posted their largest increase since March.
"We have an unusual amount of data and most of it confirms the consensus view of moderate growth into the end of the year," said Christopher Low, chief economist at FTN Financial in New York.
The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment report is due at 9:55 a.m. EST (1455 GMT), while new November home sales are set for 10 a.m. (1500 GMT).
"I am anxious to see new home sales because a big question facing us in 2011 is to what extent will housing be an ongoing drag on the economy," said Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer of Hugh Johnson Advisors LLC in Albany, New York.
Energy shares will be in the spotlight as oil prices neared a two-year high above $90 per barrel, boosted by unusually cold weather in the United States and Europe. Also, a surge in demand fueled the biggest drop in crude stockpiles in more than a decade.
S&P 500 futures dipped 1.5 points and fair value -- a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract -- was slightly lower. Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 6 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 5 points.
The S&P 500 rose Wednesday to its highest level since the collapse of Lehman Brothers more than two years ago, led by bank stocks.
"We're not as convinced as the market is right now, and I don't think we're alone," said Kim Caughey Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh. "I'm glad to see stocks go up, but I don't think a lot of them have a lot of merit underneath them, looking at their anticipated earnings growth."
Micron Technology Inc shares slipped 1.5 percent to $8.05 premarket a day after the top U.S. maker of memory chips for computers forecast lower pricing for NAND chips, which are used in smartphones and tablet computers..
Motorola Inc's spinoff, Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc, will replace Meredith Corp in the S&P 500 index after the close on Jan. 3, according to Standard & Poor's.