10 things you need to know before European markets open
Super Thursday is here. At midday London time (7 a.m. ET) the Bank of England will be releasing the quarterly inflation report, their latest decision on interest rates and the minutes from their most recent meeting all at the same time.
German factory orders surged in June. Orders rose 2% month-0n-month, leaving them up 7.2% year-on-year. Analysts had expected a 0.2% rise month-on-month.
Greece's prime minister says a deal is in the "final stretch". Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Wednesday said his government is nearing a deal with international creditors on a mammoth bailout, as his spokeswoman raised the prospect of early elections in the fall.
France and Russia cut a deal over the Mistral warships. France and Russia have settled compensation issues over helicopter carrier warships that Paris has decided not to deliver to Moscow, President Francois Hollande's office said on Wednesday. Under the deal, France will repay all advance payments made by Russia and in return will have full freedom to do whatever it wants with the vessels, which contain some Russian technology.
Mondelez is Bill Ackman's next big target. Bill Ackman has taken a $5.5 billion (£3.52 billion) position in snack food company Mondelez, according to The Wall Street Journal. According to the Journal, Ackman has amassed a 7.5% stake in the company when options contracts are included, and this stake could be revealed as soon as Thursday morning.
Volkswagen is going after Nissan in the US. Volkswagen AG's entry-level electric car, the e-Golf SE, will be priced about $4,500 (£2,881.48) lower than VW's current lowest-priced electric car, the company said on Wednesday.
VMware took a huge hit over a report that it wants to buy out its parent company. VMware shares dropped over 5%, or roughly $1.9 billion (£1.22 billion) in market cap, on Wednesday, following a news report that it could possibly buy out its parent company EMC. According to Recode, VMware is looking at the option of buying out the 80% stake of its company owned by EMC, in a transaction called downstream merger.
Tesla slashed its outlook. In the second quarter, Tesla reported a smaller-than-expected loss per share but its vehicle delivery outlook for 2015 disappointed. In after-hours trade on Wednesday, the stock was down as much as 8%. After hours, however, the stock was down just about 5.6%.
Lexus is planning a new flagship model. Toyota Motor Corp's Lexus brand is planning to launch a second top-of-the-line "flagship" model to accompany a new generation of its LS sedan, the head of the brand's U.S. operations told Reuters on Wednesday.
Asian markets are mixed. Japan's Nikkei is leading the way, up 0.63%, and China's Shanghai Composite is up 0.29%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng is down 0.49%.