10 things you need to know before European markets open
The Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers meets again today. They've barely been apart after meetings on Friday and Monday, but today the finance ministers will have had a chance to scrutinise Greek proposals delivered earlier in the week, and we should get a better idea of how close a bailout deal for the embattled country is.
And Greek PM Alexis Tsipras will meet his country's main creditors today. Tsipras will meet the European Commission's Jean-Claude Juncker, the IMF's Christine Lagarde and the ECB's Mario Draghi on Wednesday, on the sidelines of the Eurogroup meeting.
German business confidence is coming. The IFO index, a major indicator of German business confidence, is out at 9 a.m. London time (4 a.m. New York time). Analysts expect confidence to have dimmed in June, but remain high in comparison to recent years.
Orange hinted that it's open to more big telecoms mergers. Orange, France's largest telecoms company, will continue to play a leading role in creating pan-European networks through acquisitions, its chief executive told the Financial Times in an interview given last week and published on Tuesday.
Obama's trade push is reaching an end in Congress. President Barack Obama's bid to boost US economic ties with Asia was poised for a win on Wednesday, when a six-week congressional battle will culminate in a decisive Senate vote on legislation needed to seal his hallmark Pacific Rim trade deal.
Japan's Nikkei touched a level last seen in 1997. Rising about 20,920 during the day, the Japanese stock index pushed past its 2000 peak and towards levels last seen 18 years ago. It's now up 0.38%.
But Chinese stocks are down. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index is down 0.14% from Tuesday's close, and the Shanghai Composite Index is down 0.20%.
US firms are already feeling the effect of the Export-Import Bank's looming shutdown. A battle in Congress that could shut down the U.S. Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank next week is already causing headaches for small exporters as they try to stop customers from defecting to foreign competitors and as export financing starts to freeze up.
China's climate change bill is $6.6 trillion (£4.19 trillion). It will cost China over $6.6 trillion (41 trillion yuan) to meet the greenhouse gas reduction goals it will lay out later this month in its strategy for United Nations climate negotiations, the country's lead negotiator for the talks said Tuesday.
Hong Kong's final remaining pro-democracy street camps have been swept away. Hong Kong authorities began clearing away the last pro-democracy encampments near government headquarters on Wednesday, watched by a handful of demonstrators in a quiet but poignant end to nine months of street protests.