us stock futures traded slightly higher in early premarket trade after the sp 500 settled at an alltime high in the previous session markets were closed on friday in observance of the christmas day holiday the dallas fed manufacturing index for december is scheduled for release at 1000 am et the index is expected to drop to 95 in december from previous month’s reading of 118 futures for the dow jones industrial average gained 19 points to 3585100 while the standard  poor’s 500 index futures gained 9 points to 472475 futures for the nasdaq index rose 4550 points to 1634450 the us has the highest number of covid19 cases and deaths in the world with total infections in the country exceeding 53222420 with around 837850 deaths india reported a total of at least 34793330 confirmed cases while brazil confirmed over 22239430 cases oil prices traded lower as brent crude futures fell 01 to trade at 7572 per barrel while us wti crude futures fell 12 to trade at 7292 a barrel the energy information administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is scheduled for release at 1030 am et while the baker hughes north american rig count report for the recent week will be released at 100 pm et european markets were mixed today the spanish ibex index rose 03 and stoxx europe 600 index gained 02 the french cac 40 index declined 01 london’s ftse 100 slipped 01 while german dax 30 gained 01 manufacturing confidence in italy fell to 1152 in december from a revised reading of 1159 in the previous month while consumer confidence rose to 1177 in december car production in the uk dropped 287 yearoveryear to 75756 units in november spains quarterly economic growth was revised higher to 26 in the third quarter compared to a preliminary reading of 2 import prices in germany jumped 247 yearoveryear in november asian markets traded mostly higher today japan’s nikkei 225 fell 037 while hong kong’s hang seng index gained 013 and china’s shanghai composite fell 006 australia’s spasx 200 rose 044 while india’s bse sensex climbed 056 profits earned by chinese industrial firms rose 380 yearoveryear to cny 798 trillion in the januarynovember period versus a 422 growth in the previous period retail sales in japan rose 19 yearoveryear in november exceeding market estimates of a 17 growth barclays downgraded innovage holding corp nasdaq innv from overweight to equalweight and lowered the price target from 22 to 65 check out other major ratings here   ares management corporation nyse ares said its subsidiary ares holdings lp agreed to acquire amps privatemarketsco infrastructure debt platform for 308 million   a new report shows us holiday sales jumped by 85 as compared to last year increasing at the fastest rate in 17 years the sales figures outpaced a 74 increase expected by economists at mastercard inc nyse ma spendingpulse which issued the report   the drugs controller general of india has given bharat biotech’s covaxin emergency use approval in the paediatric age group between 12 and 18 years ocugen inc nasdaq ocgn has the us rights to the bharat biotech’s vaccine candidate check out other breaking news here