U.S. futures rise as market sentiment recovers; Dow Jones up 2.20%

Investing.com - U.S. stock futures pointed to a sharply higher open on Monday, as market sentiment improved amid negotiations on a European fiscal agreement designed to tackle the region’s deepening debt crisis. 

Ahead of the open, the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures pointed to a surge of 2.20%, S&P 500 futures signaled a 2.77% climb, while the Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a 2.41% increase.

Market sentiment found support amid speculation European Union leaders are moving closer to agreeing on a fiscal pact to halt the spread of the region’s debt crisis.

The pact, if agreed, would make budget discipline legally binding and enforceable by European authorities and would give the European Central Bank more scope to undertake large scale bond purchases.

In the U.S., retail sales climbed 16% as consumers stormed the malls and took to the Web during Thanksgiving weekend, spending a record USD52.4 billion.

Steelmaker Ternium jumped 3.59% after announcing on Sunday that it would pay USD2.2 billion to buy a stake in Brazilian rival Usiminas from two of its minority shareholders, despite difficult conditions for mills in the continent's largest economy.

Meanwhile, U.S. lenders also contributed to gains, tracking their European counterparts higher. Shares in Goldman Sachs advanced 0.98% and Bank of America climbed 0.58%, while Citigroup and JP Morgan rose 0.51% and 0.35% respectively.

On the downside, U.S. oil company Anadarko Petroleum saw shares decline 0.15% despite saying its major gas finds offshore Mozambique were actually twice as large as it earlier thought, adding support to hopes that East Africa will become another major gas production center.

Other energy stocks were also sharply lower as shares in Chevron plummeted 1.56% and Exxon Mobil dropped 0.91%.

Across the Atlantic, European stock markets were sharply higher. The EURO STOXX 50 surged 3.73%, France’s CAC 40 jumped 3.76%, Germany's DAX climbed 3.19%, while Britain's FTSE 100 advanced 2.09%.

During the Asian trading session, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index surged 2.05%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index gained 1.6%.

Also Monday, Moody's Investors Service warned that the rapid escalation of the sovereign and banking crisis in the single currency bloc was threatening the credit ratings of all European government bonds.

Later in the day, the U.S. was to release official data on new home sales.