By Anora Mahmudova and Carla Mozee, MarketWatch

Friday's a short trading day; Target upbeat on Black Friday

U.S. stock futures struggled to stay in positive territory Friday, as investors get ready for a shortened post-holiday session. The main indexes were on track to finish the holiday-shortened week roughly where they started.

Futures climbed in early trade, shrugging off a plunge in Chinese stocks, but were trading near the flat line shortly before the opening bell.

Futures for the S&P 500 were flat at 2,087 and those for the Nasdaq-100 picked up 9 points, or 0.2%, to 4,686. Futures of the Dow Jones Industrial Average were off by 26 points at 17,777.

Markets seemed largely unrattled by a rout on the Shanghai Composite Index Friday, which came after Chinese stock regulators launched investigations (http://www.wsj.com/articles/citic-securities-probed-by-chinas-stock-market-regulator-1448537277) into two major Chinese brokerages over suspected violations of securities rules.

Meanwhile, investors shifted their focus on retailers' Black Friday sales report. Shoppers were hitting their computers on Thanksgiving, spending 22% more than they did last year (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/more-than-1b-spent-online-on-thanksgiving-day-2015-11-27), according to Adobe Digital Index.

Before the Thanksgiving break, U.S. stocks closed mixed in Wednesday's thinly-traded session (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stock-futures-rise-as-wall-street-focuses-on-data-not-global-tensions-2015-11-25). The S&P 500 fell less than 1 point to 2,088.87. The Dow industrials edged up 1.2 points to 17,813.39, and the Nasdaq rose 0.3% to 5,116.14.

For the abbreviated week, the Dow was on track to rise 0.9%, and the S&P 500 was in line for a 0.5% advance. The Nasdaq looks like it may fare better, with a 1.2% rise.

Light session: Trading volumes are expected to be light, as markets are only open for a half day (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/when-do-markets-close-around-thanksgiving-2015-11-23) after the closure for Thanksgiving Day holiday on Thursday. Typical volume on a Thanksgiving Friday is three standard deviations below the three-month average over the last 20 years, according to Bespoke Investment Group.

The New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq will close at 1 p.m. Eastern Time, while the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association is recommending a 2 p.m. Eastern closure for the bond market.

No economic data are slated for release.

Black Friday: Millions of Americans are expected to hit the stores or shop online for discounted electronics, clothing and other items.

Retailers "have swamped newspapers and social media with advertising. Traders will be waiting to see who is first to report 'record sales' from today's shopping bonanza," said Alastair McCaig, market analyst at IG, in a note. "As ever, the devil will be in the detail, and seasoned traders are only too aware that record sales do not automatically translate into record profits."

Read: What stock investors should do when Black Friday comes (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/what-stock-investors-should-do-when-black-friday-comes-2015-11-25)

Early Friday, Target Corp. (TGT) said Apple (AAPL) iPads were top sellers in stores and online (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/target-says-it-had-good-start-to-black-friday-weekend-2015-11-27-71032442) and televisions were selling well in stores. That's helped Target get off to "a successful start" for Black Friday. Meanwhile, Wal-Mart Stores Inc (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/wal-mart-holiday-sales-get-off-to-smooth-start-2015-11-27). (WMT) said more than 25 million people visited its website and mobile-phone app ahead its sales launch.

The SPDR S&P Retail exchange-traded fund (XRT) may see some action Friday.

Read: Black Friday key for retailers after lackluster third-quarter earnings. (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/retailers-are-counting-on-black-friday-after-lackluster-third-quarter-earnings-2015-11-25)

Company news: Walt Disney Co. (DIS) shares fell 2% premarket after the media giant said in a regulatory filing that its ESPN sports network lost 3 million subscribers (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/disney-is-losing-espn-subscribers-by-the-millions-2015-11-26) within one year.

Shares of KaloBios Pharmaceuticals Inc. (KBIO) surged more than 40% premarket. The biotech firm's newly appointed chief executive, Martin Shkreli, said in a Thanksgiving Day post on Twitter (https://twitter.com/MartinShkreli/status/669947047345315840) that he's decided to stop lending out his shares in the company (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/kalobios-pharma-stock-surges-83-as-ceo-shkreli-says-will-not-lend-stock-to-shorts-2015-11-27) to those looking to sell it.

Other markets: Elsewhere in Asian trade, Japanese shares slipped 0.3%, after the Nikkei Average reached nearly 20,000 earlier this week. European stocks , were coming off session lows, but mining shares were still under additional pressure from disappointing Chinese economic data.

Oil futures (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/oil-prices-struggle-as-market-mulls-opec-meeting-2015-11-27) dropped 2%, heading south ahead of a key OPEC meeting and as supply worries persist. Gold prices fell 1.4%, and the U.S. dollar index rose 0.3% to slightly above 100.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 27, 2015 09:02 ET (14:02 GMT)

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