10 things you need to know before the opening bell
Here is what you need to know.
1. World stocks are plunging after US manufacturing hits a decade low. After US equities fell yesterday, President Trump blamed the manufacturing slowdown on the Federal Reserve allowing the dollar to strengthen.
2. Boris Johnson makes his "final offer" to the EU as the UK heads towards a hard no-deal Brexit. The prime minister is set to publish details of his proposed Brexit deal after addressing the Conservative party conference this afternoon.
3. Fitch downgraded WeWork's debt even further into junk with a scathing assessment of its 'precarious' funding trap. WeWork will likely "dramatically scale back its growth" and is now rated CCC+, the third rung in a non-investment grade scale that Fitch operates.
4. The owners of FanDuel and PokerStars have struck a $12 billion deal to create the world's biggest online betting group. Flutter Entertainment and The Stars Group earned a combined $4.7 billion in revenue last year, and boast 4 million active users around the world.
5. Credit Suisse expects an estimated $250 million boost to profit from changes the it is making to the way it calculates risk-weighted assets and hedges. "The increase in net interest income will be hedged over at least a two-year period, reducing the volatility of this incremental revenue," Credit Suisse said in a statement.
6. The Fed's regional banks are delving deeper into how climate change will impact US businesses, consumers, and the country's $17 trillion asset banking system. "It's hard to meet with a business person or a city or a community leader in this state" who doesn't have questions on climate change, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker and one of 17 Fed policymakers, said in response to a question.
7. Fantasy sports site DraftKings is looking to raise new funding at a $2 billion valuation in march to IPO. DraftKings is trying to push into the newly opened live sports betting space, which was cracked open last year after the Supreme Court overturned a federal ban on sports betting outside of Nevada.
8. Stocks are dropping on Wednesday. US futures, underlying the S&P 500 (-0.6%) and the Nasdaq (-0.7%) are both sliding. Europe opened poorly, with the DAX (-1.3%) and Euro Stoxx 50 (-1.4%) dropping. In Asia, stocks closed in the red, with the Nikkei (-0.5%), Shanghai Composite (-0.9%) and Hang Seng (-0.2%) all sliding.
9. There is a stack of earnings out through the day. UK supermarket giant Tesco is the highlight.
10. There is some important data out later. ADP data employment is out later, which will precede nonfarm payrolls later this week.