U.S. stock futures jumped on Tuesday, indicating the Dow Jones Industrial Average will start December continuing its historic rally from November.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials Index hiked 312 points, or 1.1%, to 29,941.
Futures for the S&P 500 picked up 35 points, or 1%, at 3,658.25.
Futures for the NASDAQ Composite vaulted 106.75 points, or 0.9%, to 12,383.75.
The Dow rallied 11.8% in November, posting its best one-month performance since January 1987. The S&P 500 climbed 10.8% and the NASDAQ rose 11.8%, for their strongest monthly advances since April. After November's gain, the S&P 500 is up 12.1% for 2020.
November's rally came amid a slew of positive coronavirus vaccine news, which lifted hope of a strong economic recovery. In the latest development on that front, Pfizer and BioNTech applied to the European Medicines Agency for conditional marketing authorization of their coronavirus vaccine, potentially enabling the vaccine to be used in Europe before the end of 2020.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are speaking before Congress this week. Powell called the U.S. economic outlook “extraordinarily uncertain” in prepared remarks to be delivered Tuesday.
Tesla's shares popped 4% in pre-market trading after S&P Dow Jones Indices said the electric-car maker will be added to the S&P 500 on Dec. 21 in a single step despite its large size. The index provider had considered adding the $500 billion stock in multiple phases.
Shares of Zoom Video fell 5.1% in after-hours trading despite the video-conferencing giant reporting better-than-expected earnings for the third quarter.
Overseas, in Japan, the Nikkei 225 regained 1.3% Tuesday, while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index headed higher 0.9%
Oil prices settled 26 cents to $45.08 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices gained $31.00 to $1,811.90 U.S.