US STOCKS-Wall St to rise after ECB cuts rates, considers asset purchases

* ECB cuts rates below zero to spur bank lending

* Rite Aid (Berlin: RTA.BE - news) shares slide after outlook

* Sprint (Frankfurt: 2S7.F - news) agrees to pay about $32 bln for T-Mobile US - source

* Futures up: Dow 44 pts, S&P 4 pts, Nasdaq 5 pts (Updates prices, adds ECB's Draghi press conference details, Rite Aid)

By Rodrigo Campos

NEW YORK (Frankfurt: HX6.F - news) , June 5 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 was set to extend its record on Thursday after the European Central Bank cut rates to record lows and outlined further monetary policy actions.

* The ECB cut rates including the deposit rate to -0.10 percent and will move further to persuade banks to lend. ECB head Mario Draghi said the bank's governing council will intensify preparations related to outright purchases of asset-backed securities.

* Futures drifted higher after the rate cut and added to gains on Draghi's remarks, before slightly paring. The euro dropped against the U.S. dollar and yields on euro zone government debt fell. Earlier on Thursday, in anticipation of the ECB move, Spain auctioned 3- and 5-year bonds at record low yields.

* S&P 500 e-mini futures rose 4 points. Fair value - a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract - indicated a higher open. Dow Jones industrial average e-mini futures rose 44 points and Nasdaq 100 e-mini futures added 5 points.

* Sprint has agreed to pay about $40 per share to buy T-Mobile US, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday, marking further progress in the attempt to merge the third and fourth-biggest U.S. mobile network operators. Sprint shares were up 2.3 percent in premarket trading while T-Mobile US rose 0.8 percent.

* Rite Aid shares slid 8.7 percent in heavy premarket volume after it posted sales and gave an outlook below expectations.

* Ciena Corp shares jumped 14.5 percent premarket after the company posted earnings that beat expectations and gave a revenue outlook above forecasts.

* Further supporting the upward move in futures, the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose last week, but the underlying trend continued to point to a firming labor market. (Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Nick Zieminski)