Stock futures on Wall Street were modestly higher ahead of a much-anticipated report on December employment, due at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones industrial average was higher by 6 points to 10,551, while the Nasdaq ticked up 2 points to 1,879.50 and the S&P 500 was up slightly to 1,137.60.

Friday's latest Employment Situation Report from the government is expected to provide further evidence that the nation's jobs picture continues to improve. A Labor Department report yesterday showed that although initial claims for jobless benefits inched 1,000 higher to 434,000 in the latest week, continuing claims plunged 179,000 to 4.8 million to their lowest level in a year. And on Wednesday the ADP National Employment Report showed private-sector employers cut the fewest number of jobs since March 2008. Expectations are the nation lost 25,000 non-farms jobs in December, while the unemployment rate inched up to 10.2%, according to Briefing.com.

December is a critical month for retailers - the holiday season is the busiest shopping time, and a large chunk of bottom-line profits is booked in the final month of the calendar year. In 2006, December sales accounted for about 15% of all sales for the retailing sector. But December 2007, as many were predicting, may be one of the worst Decembers this decade.

Tomorrow, same-store sales for this critical month will hit the Street and the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) is expecting an overall gain of 1% among stores open at least a year. This is below the ICSC's earlier estimate of 1.5% and compares to a year-ago jump of 3.3%. If this estimate is on the nose, it will be the sector's worst December since 2002.

There are many reasons that the holiday-shopping season was a slow one: rising food and fuel costs, the credit market breakdown, continued housing woes. And because of all these reasons, many retailers were forced to offer sale prices and additional incentives to lure cautious customers into the stores. These discounts obviously pressured the bottom line.