NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - No, Virginia, it doesn't look like Santa's coming to Wall Street this year.

So far this week, the market has failed to mount its traditional year-end "Santa Claus" rally. S&P and Nasdaq futures edged higher but the gains were small, pointing to a sluggish start for stocks Thursday in the next to last trading session of 2005.

Stocks managed small gains on Wednesday, pushing the Dow industrials back into positive territory for the year, but that did little to make up for the drubbing the market took on Tuesday.

Investors will be eyeing reports due later this morning on home sales, jobless claims, Chicago-area manufacturing and oil inventories.

Oil prices edged lower, hovering just below $60 a barrel.

The February light crude futures contract for NYMEX dipped 18 cents to $59.64 a barrel in electronic trading, while the February contract for Brent crude slipped 26 cents to $57.38. The market is keeping a close eye on oil prices ahead of the crude inventories report due later in the morning.

In currency trading, the dollar was little changed against the euro and the yen.

Bond prices were also little changed, leaving the yield on the 10-year Treasury at about 4.38 percent . The yield curve, which inverted for the first time in five years on Tuesday and briefly inverted on Wednesday, remained relatively flat this morning with the yield on the 2-year note just below that of the 10-year.

Overseas, demand for tech stocks helped push Tokyo's Nikkei to its highest close in five years, while stocks got off to a solid start in Europe. Tokyo's main market gauge, the Nikkei, is up 42 percent this year, heading for its best year since 1986, Reuters reported.

Existing home sales probably edged lower to an annual rate of seven million homes last month from 7.09 million the previous month, according to economists surveyed by Briefing.com.

The December Chicago-area manufacturing reading is expected to dip to 60 from 61.7 the prior month and weekly jobless claims are expected to climb to 322,000 from 318,000.

In corporate news, Britain's Hilton Group is planning on selling its international hotels business to U.S.-based Hilton Hotels Corp. in a deal valued between $5 billion and $6 billion, according to published reports.

The move, which would reunite the U.S. and international Hilton brands, could spark more international consolidation in the hotel industry.

HealthSouth said it's suing former chief executive and founder Richard Scrushy for more than $76 million. The company also challenged a $100 million suit that Scrushy filed against HealthSouth for breach-of-contract. Scrushy was ousted as chairman and CEO after being accused of directing a multibillion dollar accounting scandal, but he was later acquitted of the criminal charges.

And a major development in the case against Enron is peaking interest on Wall Street. The company's former accounting chief pleaded guilty to securities fraud Wednesday and may testify against former chairman Ken Lay and ex-CEO Jeff Skilling.

For a more detailed look at the markets before the open, click here.