U.S. Stock Index Futures Signal More Gains

• U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Thursday, with futures for the S&P 500 SPc1 up 0.3 percent, Dow Jones DJc1 futures up 0.3 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.2 percent. at 1051 GMT.
• European stocks gained ground in morning trade, extending a week-long rally and hitting a two-year high led by shares of financial institutions such as Societe Generale SOGN.PA and ING ING.AS , while U.S. Treasuries steadied following their recent sharp sell off.
• Oil climbed towards $89 a barrel and copper hit a record high on Thursday as the dollar weakened.
• A plan by U.S. President Barack Obama to broadly extend tax cuts moved forward on Wednesday despite opposition from his own Democrats and fear in bond markets of long-term damage to the economy.
• On the global front, Japan's economy grew a revised 1.1 percent in July-September from the previous quarter, exceeding an initial government estimate, but that offered little comfort to policymakers wary of slowing growth in the current quarter.
• Australian employment blew away forecasts by surging 54,600 in November as firms took on many more full-time workers, fuelling expectations that interest rates may not stay on hold for too long.
• United Parcel Service UPS.N plans to woo shareholders with a higher dividend and more share buybacks rather than use strong cashflow for large acquisitions, chief financial officer Kurt Kuehn told a German newspaper.
• Automakers in China shipped 29.3 percent more passenger cars to dealers in November, extending a rebound that began in August as people rushed to showrooms before incentives expire at the end of the year.
• Economic indicators on tap for Thursday include the Labor Department's release of weekly claims for unemployment insurance nd the Commerce Department's release of wholesale inventories for October.
• Companies expected to report quarterly results on Thursday include Brown-Forman Corp BFb.N , National Semiconductor and Pall Corp.
• China and North Korea reached consensus on the Korean peninsula crisis after "candid" talks, Chinese state media reported, which analysts said suggested Pyongyang likely agreed not to inflame the situation.
• U.S. stocks edged higher on Wednesday as gains in financial and technology stocks offset declines caused by a recent surge in bond yields.
• The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI gained 13.32 points, or 0.12 percent, to 11,372.48. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX gained 4.53 points, or 0.37 percent, to 1,228.28. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC gained 10.67 points, or 0.41 percent, to 2,609.16.
• The S&P faces resistance at the 1,228 level, which represents the 61.8 percent Fibonacci retracement of the 2007-2009 bear market slide, a key technical indicator.

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