10 things you need to know before European markets open

Good morning! Here are 10 things you need to know in markets today.

The ECB is telling Greek banks not to raise their exposure to government debt. That's according to sources that talked to the Wall Street Journal - a letter on Tuesday was reportedly sent to Greece's banks warning them against further exposure to Greek sovereign debt.

German business confidence figures are coming. Privately collected business confidence figures from the IFO Institute are coming at 9 a.m GMT (5 a.m. ET), and analysts are expecting an improvement across the board.

Jordan signed a $10 billion (£6.73 billion) power plant deal with Russia. Jordan signed an agreement with Russia on Tuesday worth $10 billion that sets the legal basis for building the kingdom's first nuclear power plant with a total capacity of 2,000 megawatt. Jordan imports nearly 98 percent of its energy from oil products.

A Brazilian private equity firm may buy Kraft. Kraft Foods Group Inc, maker of Velveeta cheese and Oscar Mayer meats, is in talks to be acquired by Brazilian private equity firm 3G Capital, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. 3G teamed up with Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc to acquire Ketchup maker H.J. Heinz Co for $23.2 billion two years ago.

The sale of O2 to Hutchison Whampoa was confirmed. Spain's Telefonica said it would sell British telecom giant O2 to Hong Kong group Hutchison Whampoa for £10.25 billion in a deal that could create Britain's biggest mobile phone firm. "A definitive agreement has been reached after the finalisation of the process of due diligence on O2 UK," the Spanish firm said in a statement, adding the deal was worth the equivalent of 14 billion euros ($15.2 billion).

The EU and Cuba are speeding up talks to get a deal by the end of the year. The European Union and Cuba agreed to speed up the pace of talks on improving bilateral relations, hoping to reach the basics of a deal by the end of 2015, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Tuesday.

New Zealand's government has joined Japan's in pressuring the US to fast-track a trade bill. Japan and New Zealand share the view that a fast-track trade bill in the United States is extremely important for the conclusion of a 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal, the Japanese economy minister said on Wednesday.

Asian shares are mixed. Japan's Nikkei closed up 0.17%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng is currently 0.43% higher, but the Shanghai Composite Index is down 0.55%.

Orange juice is in its biggest bull rally this century. Orange juice futures spiked yesterday over concerns about production in Florida, confirming the biggest three-day rally in 16 years, according to Bloomberg.

Financial Times analysis shows extremely dodgy behaviour in one Chinese stock. The price of shares in Hannergy, the solar company with one of the fastest growing market capitalisations in the world, has been rising particularly and very sharply in the last 10 minutes of every trading day, according to analysis by the Financial Times. It's so severe that an investor who held shares from the market opening to 3.30 p.m. but not in the very last part of the day for the last two years would have lost money, though the stock has gone up 1,168% in that period.