Futures added to sharp gains Wednesday following news global central banks announced coordinated actions to enhance their capacity to provide liquidity to financial systems.
The world's major central banks including the ECB, Federal Reserve, Bank of England and the central banks of Canada, Japan and Switzerland agreed to coordinated action to ease the increasing strains on the global financial system.
The move is designed to "enhance their capacity to provide liquidity support to the global financial system."
Futures were higher after China surprised with its first cut in banks' reserve requirements in hopes of boosting an economy running at its weakest pace since 2009.
After the market close Tuesday, Standard & Poor's reduced its credit ratings on 15 large financials, mostly in the Europe and U.S. as the result of a sweeping overhaul of its ratings criteria.
JPMorgan Chase , Bank of America , Citigroup , Wells Fargo , Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley , were among the banks that had their ratings reduced by one notch each. A notch is one third of a letter rating.
In Europe, EU finance ministers agreed to ramp up the firepower of their rescue fund but left a number of questions unanswered, including the exact size of the increased fund.
