US STOCKS-Wall St set to slide at open on jobs data

                                
 * U.S. data shows unemployment rate at 4-1/2 year in Aug
                                
 * Global growth concerns fuel global equity rout
                                
 * Nokia's warns on outlook, adds to negative tone
                                
 * Broader market threatening a retest of July low
 (Rewrites first paragraph, updates prices)
                                
 By Ellis Mnyandu
                                
 NEW YORK, Sept 5 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks headed for a lower
open on Friday after a government report showed the U.S. labor
market deteriorated further in August, pushing the unemployment
rate to its highest in more than 4-1/2 years.
                                
 The news of the unemployment rate climbing to 6.1 percent
last month from 5.7 percent in July painted a bleak picture for
the economy and the outlook for profit growth, and fueled a
sell-off in Europe.
                                
 Technology shares, including chip makers Qualcomm <QCOM.O>
and Texas Instruments <TXN.N>, were set to be among the top
drags after Nokia <NOK1V.HE>, the world's biggest maker of
mobile phones, slashed its third-quarter market share outlook.
                                
 A broad slide on Wall Street will extend Thursday's rout
that has put the broader market on the cusp of retesting its
July 15 low.
                                
 "We're running job losses that are typically seen in the
early stages of a economic recession. We're probably in one
with the unemployment rate going up that much over the last
year, and especially in a single month," said David Resler,
chief economist at Nomura Securities in New York.
                                
 S&P 500 futures <SPc1> fell 11.9 points and were below fair
value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account
interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the
contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures <DJc1> fell 102
points and Nasdaq 100 <NDc1> futures lost 18.50 point.
                                
 The bleak news on the economic front diminished the
appetite for riskier assets like stocks, causing investors to
run for the relative safety of government debt. Benchmark
10-year U.S. Treasury yields fell to their lowest in 4-1/2
months.
                                
 Merrill Lynch <MER.N> will also be among the high-profile
drags after Goldman Sachs cut the investment bank to a "sell"
and said it will likely incur additional write-downs for soured
mortgage investments. Merrill shares slid 5.4 percent to $24.80
before the bell.
 (Editing by Kenneth Barry)