10 things you need to know before European markets open
The Bank of England is coming. At midday UK time (7 a.m. ET) the Bank of England will be releasing minutes and the decision from its latest monetary policy meeting. Analysts are expecting one Monetary Policy Committee member to vote to hike interest rates and eight to hold them steady, the same as last month.
Chinese consumer price inflation ticked up a bit. From a year earlier, August's consumer prices increased by 2.0%, well above the 1.6% pace of July and expectations for an acceleration to 1.8%.
Greece's political leaders had a televised debate. Greece's political heavyweights went head-to-head for the first time on Wednesday in campaigning for national elections, trading accusations over the economic crisis as they sought to win over undecided voters.
Brazil got cut to junk. Ratings agency Standard and Poor's cut Brazil's sovereign credit rating one notch from BBB+ to BB-, leaving the nation's debt categorized as non-investment grade, or "junk" status.
Asian markets are sinking. The Nikkei is down 3.01%, reversing some of its massive 7.7% surge on Wednesday. Hong Kong's Hang Seng is down 2.07% and China's Shanghai Composite is down 0.64%.
A Chinese buyer wanted all of Bombardier's rail unit. Canada's Bombardier has turned down a Chinese offer to buy up to 100% of its prized rail unit, documents seen by Reuters show, underscoring its reluctance to cede control of the unit to a state-owned Chinese buyer at this juncture.
Mobile payments firm Square plans to IPO. Square, a mobile-payments startup, has plans to IPO within the next four months, according to a new Bloomberg report. The report of Square's planned initial public offering comes as the markets have been rocked by volatility amid signs of a slowdown in the Chinese economy and other macroeconomic concerns.
Alibaba's vice chairman says the company's situation is better than it was a year ago. Alibaba Group Executive Vice Chairman Joe Tsai said on Thursday he is not thrilled that the company's share price is below its IPO level a year ago, but is confident the e-commerce titan is better than it was then.
Boeing is hitting the gas on plane production. Boeing said on Wednesday that it will push production of its 767 aircraft up by 25% in 2017 to help fill a historic order for 50 planes from FedEx Corp.
Several nations are getting ready to expand their campaigns against Islamic State. Nations from Europe to Australasia are eyeing increased military support for "Operation Inherent Resolve," aimed at degrading and destroying the Islamic State jihadists, according to several well placed officials.