us stock futures traded higher in early premarket trade after the dow jones jumped more than 300 points in the previous session the federal reserve maintained its target fed funds rate range of between zero and 025 but said it will be accelerating its monthly asset purchase tapering investors are awaiting earnings results from accenture plc nyse acn fedex corporation nyse fdx and adobe inc nasdaq adbe data on initial jobless claims philadelphia fed manufacturing index housing starts and permits will be released at 830 am et data on industrial production for november will be released at 915 am et while the flash composite purchasing managers index for december will be released at 945 am et the kansas city fed manufacturing index for december will be released at 1100 am et futures for the dow jones industrial average gained 164 points to 3609000 while the standard  poor’s 500 index futures rose 24 points to 473350 futures for the nasdaq 100 index climbed 9350 points to 1638150 the us has the highest number of covid19 cases and deaths in the world with total infections in the country exceeding 51290970 with around 823390 deaths india reported a total of at least 34718660 confirmed cases while brazil confirmed over 22201220 cases oil prices traded higher as brent crude futures rose 1 to trade at 7460 per barrel while us wti crude futures rose 11 to trade at 7164 a barrel the energy information administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is scheduled for release at 1030 am et european markets were higher today the spanish ibex index rose 1 and stoxx europe 600 index gained 11 the french cac 40 index climbed 1 london’s ftse 100 rose 09 while german dax 30 gained 15 the ihs markit eurozone manufacturing pmi declined to 58 in december from 584 in november while services pmi fell to 533 from 559 italy’s trade surplus shrank to eur 3888 billion in october from eur 7587 billion in the yearago month the ihs markitcips uk manufacturing pmi fell to a 3month low of 576 in december while composite pmi fell to 532 in december german composite pmi dropped to 50 in december from 522 in the prior month while french composite pmi declined to 556 in december asian markets traded mostly higher today japan’s nikkei 225 rose 213 while hong kong’s hang seng index gained 023 and china’s shanghai composite gained 075 australia’s spasx 200 fell 04 while india’s bse sensex gained 03 australias new home sales climbed by 77 in november while unemployment fell to 46 in november the ihs markit australia composite pmi fell to a twomonth low of 549 in december the au jibun bank japan manufacturing pmi fell to 542 in december from a final reading of 545 while services pmi fell to 511 in december japan reported a trade deficit of jpy 9548 billion in november needham maintained medtronic plc nyse mdt with a buy and lowered the price target from 145 to 131 check out other major ratings here   nordson corporation nasdaq ndsn reported weakerthanexpected results for its fourth quarter on wednesday   amazoncom inc nasdaq amzn senior vice president neil lindsay has been appointed to oversee the retail giant’s healthcare expansion   lennar corporation nyse len reported downbeat earnings for its fourth quarter the company said it sees q1 new orders of 14800 to 15100   apple inc nasdaq aapl has closed three stores in the united states and canada on a temporary basis after a reported escalation in covid19 exposures among its employees check out other breaking news here