By Kristina Cooke NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks slipped in thin holiday trade on Friday after a streak of gains as investors nervously eyed post-Thanksgiving sales to gauge how retailers will fare this holiday season, while worries about global demand hurt technology and energy shares. Chevron fell 1.9 percent tracking oil lower as OPEC gathered to discuss potential further supply cuts to combat falling demand. U.S. crude dropped below $53 a barrel. Technology shares slid after signs of a downturn in global chip demand as STMicroelectronics cut its fourth-quarter outlook. Industry sources said Taiwan companies want to slash costs. The semiconductor index shed 1.1 percent. The U.S. stock market was closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday and is trading for half the day on Friday. On Wednesday, stocks ended higher, capping the Dow's biggest four-day percentage gain since 1932. Stores across America hope to ring in billions of dollars in holiday sales beginning on the "Black Friday", the day after Thanksgiving. But retailers fear a looming recession and mounting job losses could cost them dearly during the period that brings in up to 40 percent of annual sales. "It's a light volume day so you're going to see some choppy trading, with so many people out," said Robert Finkel, consumer trader at Stifel Nicolaus in Baltimore. "I'm watching how things go from a retail standpoint today - we've heard a lot of speculation about how bad it's going to be, now we'll get some proper feedback." The holiday weekend will test the strength of consumer sentiment, a main driver of the U.S. economy, as the country faces its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 2.39 points, or 0.03 percent, to 8,724.22. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 2.39 points, or 0.27 percent, at 885.29. The Nasdaq Composite Index shed 14.26 points, or 0.93 percent, to 1,517.84. The S&P's retail index dipped 1.6 percent. Chesapeake Energy Corp fell 14.7 percent to $17.26 after a shelf offering to issue up to 50 million shares. U.S. aluminum company Alcoa Inc's fell after an executive said the company is not actively seeking to raise its stake in miner Rio Tinto Ltd. There is no U.S. economic data due on Friday nor any major companies scheduled to report earnings. For the month, the Dow is down more 6 percent, the S&P 500 down more than 8 percent and Nasdaq down 11 percent. (Additional reporting by Charles Mikolajczak; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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