Economy
World shares are on the rise today following a vote of confidence from the Fed on Wednesday that the U.S. economy was on track. The Dow and S&P surged yesterday to their strongest percentage gains of the year on the news, following Janet Yellen's comments that an interest rate increase was unlikely for at least the next two FOMC meetings. Whether hikes come sooner, faster, or on that date, said Yellen, depends on the incoming data.

Oil extended its biggest advance in more than a week amid speculation that the market might be looking to find a bottom and that the plunge to five-year lows may have been excessive. Brent crude rallied 3.3% to $63.22/bbl, as some traders bet a six-month price rout could be ending as more energy firms cut investment budgets. WTI jumped 3.2% to $58.30.

President Obama has ordered the restoration of full diplomatic relations with Cuba and the opening of an embassy in Havana in the coming months. The move will ease travel restrictions to Cuba and the eventual lifting of the Cuban embargo. Along with soaring cruise ship operator stocks yesterday, exchange traded fund CUBA skyrocketed 29%, and is now up another 2% premarket.

Addressing Russia in his annual speech today, Vladimir Putin said that the country's current economic difficulties could last for the next two years but the situation could improve faster. Putin also declared that the central bank and government were taking adequate measures to support the ruble and that Russia's current economic situation was caused by external factors, mainly from the price of oil and gas. The ruble is more than 2% weaker on the day at 61.72 against the dollar.

An early general election in Greece is looking more likely after the first round of a snap presidential election failed to win support for Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s candidate - Stavros Dimas. There is a great possibility that the left-wing, anti-austerity party Syriza could win such a vote – potentially putting the country's international bailout into jeopardy. Greece appears to be on track for a primary budget surplus in 2014, but the country still has an enormous debt pile of 175.5% of GDP.

New York Gov. Cuomo's administration says it will ban fracking statewide, citing health concerns and what it considers as limited economic benefits to drilling. NY's acting health commissioner said at a cabinet meeting in Albany yesterday that studies on fracking’s effects on water, air and soil are inconsistent, incomplete and raise too many “red flags” for the state to allow it.

Stocks
U.S. officials have concluded that North Korea was behind the cyberattack on Sony Pictures (NYSE:SNE) that has leaked numerous email threads, salary details and upcoming films. The news follows Sony's move to pull the release of its comedy The Interview, which had been set to debut on Dec. 25. Yesterday, four of the largest theater chains in the U.S. abandoned plans to show the film in response to threats of violence.

Oracle +5.1% premarket after delivering quarterly earnings and revenue results that topped analyst expectations, along with strong cloud growth. Responding to the recent pressure of making its products more compatible with cloud computing services, Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) reported that new cloud bookings grew at a rate of more than 140% during the quarter. The quarter was also the software company’s first without Larry Ellison as chief executive.

On top of red ink and sluggish sales, and just days after Paula Schneider was named CEO, American Apparel's (NYSEMKT:APP) board is facing another headache. More than 30 execs have asked the board to reconsider their decision to fire Dov Charney, saying that he is what "makes this thing tick," and he should be a part of the retailer’s future by helping the next CEO improve the chain. APP +2.9% premarket.

After seeing the NYSE's market share erode to just 20% from nearly 80% a decade ago, ICE (NYSE:ICE) is pushing for a major overhaul that would restore the role of exchanges at the center of trading. Under the proposal, the NYSE would lower its fee for trading stocks by more than 80% if Wall Street banks and other competitors agreed to a rule that would move more trading away from their so-called dark pools and off-exchange venues.

BGC Partners has increased its takeover offer for rival interdealer broker GFI Group (NYSE:GFIG) by 3.8%, raising its bid to $5.45 per share. BGC’s (NASDAQ:BGCP) chairman and chief executive officer, Howard Lutnick, is looking to consolidate the shrinking interdealer brokerage business by topping CME Group’s (NASDAQ:CME) takeover bid for GFI. CME matched BGC’s previous $5.25 per share offer on Dec. 2.

Takata CEO Shigehisa Takada, who has not made a public appearance since June, said the company was analyzing collected inflators to determine the cause of defects with its air bags. "Takata (OTCPK:TKTDY) is prioritizing the supply of replacement parts. We have sufficient funds put aside, and we are not concerned that we are under-capitalized," announced Takada. The Japanese air bag supplier has so far put aside $774M to deal with recalls, but it faces dozens of class-action lawsuits as well as a U.S. criminal investigation.

Today's economic calendar:

8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
9:45 Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index
9:45 PMI Services Index Flash
10:00 Philly Fed Business Outlook
10:00 Leading Indicators
10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
4:30 PM Money Supply
4:30 PM Fed Balance Sheet

Notable earnings before today's open: ACN, ATU, BRLI, CAG, NEOG, RAD, SAFM, SCHL, WGO, WOR

Notable earnings after today's close: AIR, CTAS, NKE, PIR, RHT