Strong Global Manufacturing Data Drives Futures Sharply Higher

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Stock futures jumped more than 130 points on Wednesday as positive economic data on manufacturing and jobs helped lift global markets overnight.

As of 8:55 a.m. in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 134 points to 11130, the S&P 500 futures were up 15.6 points to 1195.20 and the Nasdaq 100 futures rose 28.5 points to 2145.50.

Global investors overnight got strong manufacturing reports out of the U.K. and China along with a positive retail sales report out of Germany. While Asian markets had a mostly muted reaction to the Chinese manufacturing data, European indices were up as much as 1.8% in mid-day trading across the continent.

Two Chinese purchasing managers index - one released by the government and another done by a private sector group - both showed that manufacturing activity expanded in November. According to HSBC, who puts out the private sector report, Chinese business conditions were improving at the strongest pace in eight months.

The U.K.'s November manufacturing activity also improved to its best level in 15 years and manufacturing job creation was at its fastest pace since Markit/CIPS, who puts out the survey, began collecting data in 1992.

Commodities rallied on the news. Oil was up 1.5% to $85.35 a barrel, gold was up 0.7% to $1,395.40 a troy ounce and copper futures, which typical move in line with manufacturing activity, rallied 1.4%.

Here in the U.S., Wall Street has its own wave of economic data to work through.

Futures extended their gains after the payroll processor ADP said that private-sector employers added 93,000 jobs in November on a seasonally-adjusted basis, well ahead of the 58,000-job figure economists were looking for.

Also out today, the Institute for Supply Managers' manufacturing index is expected to show activity slowed slightly to a reading of 56.5 when it is released at 10 a.m. ET and the major automakers' will release their November auto sales figures at around 12 p.m. ET. This will be the first auto sales report General Motors (NYSE:GM) will participate in since becoming a publicly-traded company.

At 2 p.m., the Federal Reserve will release its "Beige Book" which is the central bank's anecdotal observations of economic activity across the country. The book is typically used by policy makers to set interest rates and determine what other monetary policies to use.