REUTERS/Olivia Harris
Riot police protect the entrance to Chinatown from
Today may be the day that the Federal Reserve hikes rates. The September meeting of the Fed's rate-setters has been suggested for a long time as one in which they might finally hike interest rates, for the first time since the financial crisis. The decision comes at 7 p.m.
The latest Greek opinion poll gives Syriza a slight lead. Greece's leftist Syriza party has a 0.6 percentage point lead over the conservative New Democracy party, a Kapa Research poll for To Vima newspaper showed on Thursday.
France's Altice is making a huge US acquisition. European telecoms giant Altice, run by Franco-Israeli media magnate Patrick Drahi, is to buy the number-four US cable operator Cablevision for $17.7 billion (11.42 billion), including debt, a source close to the deal told AFP.
UK retail sales are coming. British retail sales, a key indicator of consumer confidence, roll out at 9:30 a.m. UK time (4:30 a.m ET). Analysts are expecting a 3.8% rise year-on-year in August, down a little from 4.2% in July.
Japan's trade data disappointed. Exports in August were up 3.1% year-on-year against expectations of a 4% rise. Crucially, this is also a step down from last month's 7.6% annual pace. Imports fell 3.1% versus the 2.2% expected. Together, this combined to generate a bigger than expected deficit of 569.7 billion Yen.
New Zealand's Q2 growth missed expectations. New Zealand's farm-dependent economy is growing more slowly than expected, official figures showed Thursday, feeding expectation of further interest rate cuts. Statistics New Zealand said the economy expanded 0.4% in the three months to June, below consensus forecasts of 0.6%.
Cigna's CEO defended the company's enormous merger deal. Health insurer Anthem's planned $47 billion (£30.32 billion) takeover of rival Cigna will not hurt consumers but increase choice and affordability, Cigna CEO David Cordani said, defending the merger against widespread criticism that it will harm competition.
A GE executive said the company has no plans to split off healthcare units. General Electric has no intent to split off any significant parts of its healthcare business, GE's head of the unit said on Wednesday, and that "all aspects" of the $18 billion (£11.61 billion) division are part of the company's portfolio.
Asian markets are up. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong is up 0.70%, Japan's Nikkei is up 1.42%, and China's Shanghai Composite is up 0.25%.
Microsoft's Satya Nadella has three priorities for the company. The CEO wants to focus on improving the productivity of customers, making personal computers more natural to use and making the cloud more intelligent.