US Stock Futures Signal Higher Start For Wall Street

US stock futures are higher, this morning as President Barack Obama agreed on a deal with the Republican Party in order to extend tax cuts for the coming two years for all Americans. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 76 points to 11,429 and S&P 500 futures rose 10.20 points to 1,232. Nasdaq 100 futures gained 19 points to 2,210. US stocks closed lower on Monday, with the Dow index falling 0.2%. No major US economic data are due to be released today. The Treasury Department announced the pricing of the public offering of about 2.4 billion shares of Citigroup Inc C at $4.35 per share. Shares of Unilever UN UL surged about 3.2% in pre-market trading after the company was upgraded from “underweight” to “overweight” by Morgan Stanley. EU countries will announce a formal approval to the Ireland's bailout package and the Irish parliament is set to vote on its budget on Tuesday. Positive sentiments ruled the European markets today. While STOXX Europe 600 Index has advanced 1.28%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved up 1.08%. Asian markets ended mostly in the positive territory, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average falling 0.26%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving up 0.77% and China's Shanghai Composite gaining 0.65%. The US dollar fell, while the euro rose about 0.7%. The dollar index (DXY) lost 0.29%. Commodity prices surged, with crude-oil futures for January advancing about $0.80 per barrel in electronic trading on Globex. Gold futures for February advanced $11.40 to $1,427.50 an ounce. Read more from Benzinga's Markets.