1. Trump rally just won’t stop

The Dow has climbed a stunning 1,200 points in the month since Donald Trump's election victory. The index is now within striking distance - roughly 500 points - from the 20,000 point milestone.

Investors are hoping that Trump will boost business and help accelerate the U.S. economy with a fiscal stimulus program.

Transport, financial and infrastructure stocks are the biggest winners of the rally.

2. Draghi to take front stage

The European Central Bank will decide Thursday whether to extend its stimulus program beyond March 2017.

Investors are expecting ECB president Mario Draghi to extend the program. But the devil will be in the details: by how much and for how long?

Draghi is likely to remind investors that the stimulus program will eventually need to be scaled back. But trouble in the Italy's banking sector means it's not currently "an expedient time for the ECB to reduce its monthly bond purchases.”

3. Global market overview

The euro pushed higher to trade near 3-week highs on Thursday and the dollar slipped ahead of the European Central Bank’s final policy meeting of the year. The ECB is likely to announce an extension of its €80 billion a month quantitative easing program.

Global stock markets are mostly higher on Thursday, following another record breaking session in the U.S. on Wednesday.

Asian markets closed higher. Japan's Nikkei climbed 1.5% and while Korea's Kospi added nearly 2%. European markets are mixed in early trading.

U.S. stock futures are flat.

Both the Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500 closed at record highs on Wednesday. The Dow increased 1.6%, while the S&P climbed 1.3% and the Nasdaq added 1.1%.

4. Earnings and economics

Sears Holdings will release its earnings before the open Thursday.

The Department of Labor will publish the latest weekly jobless claims report at 13:30GMT.

China reported stronger than expected trade numbers for November. Exports grew 0.1% year on year in dollar terms, following a 7.5% decline in October.

Japanese third quarter GDP was revised lower to annualized 1.3% on Thursday.