Stock Markets Look to Hit New Records On Tax Cut Promises and Deal Talk

New York (Dec 14)  Wall Street could take another run at record highs Thursday as investors extend gains following the Federal Reserve's much-anticipated rate hike and surprisingly dovish outlook for further increases next year and bet on an impending agreement on tax cuts from U.S. lawmakers in Washington.

Contracts tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were trading 36 points higher after a record close for the benchmark on Wednesday while those linked to the broader S&P 500 were up 2.5 points, or 0.09%. Investors likely will focus on the dollar, which fell against a basket of six global currencies to 93.44, extending its decline from earlier this week to around 0.75%, as well as earnings from Adobe Systems Inc.  (ADBE - Get Report) , Oracle Corp.  (ORCL - Get Report) and Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST - Get Report) .

The economic calendar includes retail sales data for November, weekly jobless claims and the flash estimate of private sector economic activity for December.

The session's biggest headlines, however, were coming from a deal for Walt Disney Co. (DIS - Get Report)  to buy Twenty-First Century Fox Inc.'s   (FOXA - Get Report)  film and TV businesses for $52.4 billion.

Fox shares rose 2.1% in premarket trading on Thursday to $33.45, whole Disney rose 1% to $108.67.

In overnight trading, the weaker U.S. dollar dictated markets in Asia and boosted the value of currencies in Europe, lifting the pound past the 1.3430 mark against the greenback and pushing Britain's FTSE 100 benchmark 26 points, or 0.35% into the red ahead of the Bank of England policy decision on Wednesday.

The euro is also getting a boost from the dollar weakness, rising to 1.1824 ahead of the European Central Bank's December policy meeting in Frankfurt where President Mario Draghi is slated to update the ECB's near-term growth and inflation forecasts and possibly offer further clues on the pace of unwinding of its €2.55 billion ($3 trillion) quantitative easing program. The euro strength has markets in Germany and France lower, with the DAX down 0.55% and the CAC-40 down 0.3%.

Curiously, the pullbacks followed data showing eurozone economic activity surged to its fastest pace in nearly seven years this month as Germany's key manufacturing sector sped to its fastest pace on record amid the ongoing uuroboom recovery that is driving gains in the world's biggest trading bloc.

TheStreet