Reuters/Alessandro Bianchi
Pope Francis receives a parrot from a performer of the Golden Circus during his Wednesday general audience in Paul VI Hall at the Vatican.
Dow 20,000 remains elusive. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.56% on Wednesday to finish at 19,833.68. It's on track to open little changed during what is likely to be a thin holiday trade.
US Treasurys are rallying. A modest bid has pushed US Treasury yields down as much as 4 basis points in the belly of the curve, and has the 10-year yield at 2.48%.
The US dollar is at a 2-week low. Early selling has the US dollar index down 0.6% at 102.72. The greenback's 0.7% drop against the Japanese yen is the largest versus its peers.
Macau tourism may be bottoming out. Visitor arrivals in Macau totaled 2,588,645, little changed from a year ago, the Macau Daily Times reports, citing data from the Statistics and Census Service.
Madrid is going carless for a day. The Spanish capital is banning all private vehicles from the roads on Thursday in an effort to curb rising air pollution, Reuters reports.
Toshiba crashes for a third day. Shares of the chips-to-construction group tumbled more than 17% on Thursday after Moody's downgraded it deeper into "junk" territory. Toshiba has lost about 42% of its value in the three days of trading since it was revealed it may have to takea larger than expected writedown on its acquisition of Chicago Bridge & Iron.
Kate Spade is reportedly trying to sell itself. The retailer is working with investment banks on a possible sale, the Wall Street journal reports. Just six weeks ago, New York-based hedge fund Caerus Investors asked the board to consider a sale.
Facebook ads are "far less viewable" than some advertisers were expecting. Advertisers are starting to pay a lot more attention to the accuracy of Facebook's numbers, and those numbers may not be as good as advertisers were expecting.
Alibaba is investing in digital content. Alibaba Digital Media and Entertainment Group, the entertainment arm of Alibaba, will invest more than 50 billion yuan ($7.2 billion) over the next three years, Yu Yongfu, the group's CEO said.
US economic data remains light. Initial jobless claims will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET and crude oil inventories will cross the wires at 11 a.m. ET.