10 things you need to know before European markets open
China's exports tumbled in the year to August. China's exports fell 6.1% year-on-year to 1.20 trillion yuan (around $188 billion, £122.73 billion) in August, Customs said on Tuesday, the latest figures showing weakness in the world's second-largest economy.
A new poll gives Syriza a very narrow lead in the upcoming Greek election. Greece's leftist Syriza party has a 0.5 percentage-point lead over the conservative New Democracy party ahead of a snap election on Sept. 20, according to a poll published on Monday.
The EU is reportedly about to approve the massive GE-Alstom deal. The European Union will announce it has approved a deal under which General Electric will acquire the energy business of French company Alstom for $12 billion (£7.83 billion), a source close to the transaction said Monday.
Eurozone GDP is coming. It's another estimate of Q2 eurozone GDP, and analysts expect to see the same results as the previous estimate, with growth of 1.2% year-on-year and 0.3% growth compared to Q1.
Japan's Q2 GDP fall wasn't as bad as initially thought. Japan's economy contracted by 0.3% in the three months to June, a slight improvement on the 0.4% preliminary estimate released previously.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe secured another term as his party's leader. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won a rare second consecutive term on Tuesday, after his only potential rival for the post of ruling party chief failed to gain enough sponsors to register for the race.
Lufthansa flights are being cancelled over yet another strike. The German pilots' union will extend its strike at Lufthansa into Wednesday after a walkout already planned for Tuesday in a long-running dispute over pay, benefits and cost cuts.
Asian markets are mixed. Hong Kong's Hang Seng is up 0.34% as of 6:40 London time (1:40 a.m. ET), while the Shanghai Composite is down 1.19% and Japan's Nikkei is down 1.91%.
Beijing made another effort to halt the slide in equity markets. China said on Monday it would remove personal income tax on dividends for shareholders who hold stocks for more than a year, in a move aimed at encouraging longer-term investment in equities as opposed to short-term speculation.
The European Council's Donald Tusk says there's zero chance of a European treaty change soon. .