Stocks headed for a flat open Thursday as investors weighed better-than-expected sales reports from discounters and a $15 billion buyout for Rohm and Haas Co. against continued worries about the financial sector.

Stock futures shot higher early Thursday after Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said it got a boost from the government’s stimulus package, and it raised its forecast for the current quarter. Meanwhile, Dow Chemical Co. said it would acquire rival specialty chemicals maker Rohm and Haas in a deal worth more than $15 billion.

But further declines in shares of mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac because of capital concerns unnerved investors. The two government-chartered companies have fallen sharply of late on concerns that they will be forced to sell more new shares than anticipated to compensate for losses from the housing slump. The stocks extended their declines in premarket trading Thursday.

Stocks tumbled Wednesday amid concerns about the financial sector, leaving the major indexes in bear market territory _ down more than 20 percent from their October highs.

A day after the Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 230 points, Dow futures slipped 4 points, or 0.04 percent, to 11,145. Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures fell 1.90, or 0.15 percent, to 1,246.10, while Nasdaq 100 index futures declined 2.50, or 0.14 percent, to 1,829.00.

Meanwhile, light, sweet crude rose nearly $2 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, approaching the $138 level. The market has been highly sensitive in recent months to sharp moves in the price of oil.

Investors also digested a Labor Department report that new applications for unemployment insurance fell by a seasonally adjusted 58,000 to 346,000 last week. But continuing claims rose, illustrating the weakness that remains in the labor market.

Economists had expected claims to fall to 395,000 last week, from a spike of 404,000 in the prior week.

But the number of people continuing to receive unemployment benefits jumped by 91,000 to 3.2 million for the week ending June 28, the most recent period for which that information is available. The gain leaves the filings at the highest level since late December 2003.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 0.12 percent. In afternoon trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 1.23 percent, Germany’s DAX index declined 0.60 percent, and France’s CAC-40 fell 1.93 percent.

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