10 things you need to know before the opening bell
Chinese stocks experienced a roller coaster ride. The Shanghai Composite (+1.2%) fell more than 5% in early action, but staged a remarkable rumor-fueled turnaround. Business Insider Australia reported that unconfirmed reports the People's Bank of China could announce a 50 basis point cut to its reserve requirement ratio this weekend were behind the rally.
China injected nearly $100 billion of FX reserves into two banks. State-run media Xinhua reports Beijing has injected $48 billion into China Development Bank and $45 billion into Export-Import Bank of China. The injection was the latest effort by Beijing to stabilize the Chinese economy, which has seen its official growth rate slow to 7% in the first half of the year from 7.4% in 2014.
The July Fed minutes are coming. The minutes from the Federal Reserve's July meeting will cross the wires at 2 p.m. ET. Market participants will be parsing the language for any clues as to if September will bring the first rate hike by Fed since August 2006. Specifically, traders will be looking for any signs of improvement in the labor market and hints of inflation running back towards the Fed's 2% target.
Japan's trade deficit expanded. Japan's trade deficit widened to 268 billion yen, far greater than the 56.7 billion yen deficit that was expected. Exports climbed 7.6% year-over-year, but that missed the 9.5% gain that economists were anticipating. Imports slid 3.2% compared to last year, which was better than the drop of 7.9% was anticipated.
Vietnam devalued its currency. Vietnam's central bank weakened the dong's exchange rate by 1% to 21,890 dong per dollar and expanded the size of its trading band to 3% in either direction. "The dong will have enough room to fluctuate more flexibly to cope with negative impacts from international and domestic markets, not only from now until the rest of the year but also in early months of 2016," the central bank said in a statement. The dong settled weaker by 1.2% at 22,360 per dollar.
Germany has approved the third Greek bailout. German lawmakers approved the €86 billion Greek bailout by a vote of 454 to 113 with 18 abstainers. According to the BBC, 46 Members of Parliament did not attend the vote with some speculating this was done by members of Chancellor Angela Merkel's party to avoid voting against the deal. "There is no guarantee that all of this will work and there can always be doubts," German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said. The IMF has yet to commit to the package, saying it would like to see how much progress is made by October. Greece's 2-year yield is up 35 basis points at 11.08%.
AIG has exited the airplane leasing business. Bloomberg reports, the insurer has raised about $500 million through the sale of its AerCap Holdings stock. The 10.7 million share offering has been seven years in the making as the company has been seeking to exit the business since its 2008 bailout, according to Bloomberg. AerCap closed at $48.01 per share on Tuesday, but the per share sale price is unknown.
Stock markets around the globe are lower. Japan's Nikkei (-1.6%) paced the decline in Asia and Germany's DAX (-1%) leads the way lower in Europe. S&P 500 futures are down 5 points.
US economic data flows. CPI will cross the wires at 8:30 a.m. ET and crude oil inventories are due out at 10:30 a.m. ET.
Earnings are still rolling in. American Eagle, Hormel Foods, Lowe's, Staples and Target all report ahead of the opening bell on Wednesday. L Brands and NetApp highlight the names scheduled to release their quarterly results after the close.