European businesses are worried about the future. Markit's final composite PMI figure for the eurozone, released on Thursday, showed that businesses are deferring their spending due to an uncertain future. "The slowing rate of growth across the region in part reflects growing caution among businesses in terms of their spending due to worries about the economic outlook, linked in many cases to political uncertainty," IHS Markit's Senior Business Economist Chris Williamson in a release alongside the data.
Gold is making a comeback. Light buying early in Wednesday's session has the precious metal metal higher by 0.4% at $1,273.72 per ounce. The small gain comes after the shiny metal tumbled below $1,300 per ounce on Tuesday for the first time since the Brexit vote, falling 3.1%.
The British pound holds near 31-year lows. On Tuesday, fears of a "hard Brexit" pushed sterling below 1.2700 against the dollar for the first time since 1985. Currently, action holds little changed at 1.2727 despite manufacturing PMI coming in at 55.4, well above the 52.1 that was expected.
Brexit could cost banks $51 billion. According to Oliver Wyman, which prepared the report on behalf of TheCityUK lobby group, almost 70,000 jobs and £10 billion of tax revenue are on the line from Brexit, Bloomberg says.
Jeff Gundlach says a 'pivot' is coming to economic policy. Speaking at Grant's Interest Rate Observer conference in New York on Tuesday, Jeff Gundlach said he thinks interest rates have bottomed and that the narrative of rates staying lower for longer is "getting quite old."
There was a huge oil discovery in Alaska. Oil and gas explorer Caelus says it has discovered between 6 billion and 10 billion barrels of light oil, making it one of the largest discoveries ever in Alaska, CNN Money reports.
Asahi is interested in some of SABMiller's beer. Japanese brewer Asahi is putting together an offer of 500 billion yen ($4.87 billion) for SABMiller's beer business in Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania, Nikkei reports.
Stock markets around the world trade mixed. Japan's Nikkei (+0.5%) led the gains in Asia and France's CAC (-0.7%) paces the decline in Europe. S&P 500 futures are down 0.50 points at 2,144.25.
Earnings reporting remains slow. Monsanto reports ahead of the opening bell and Yum Brands releases its quarterly results after markets close.
US economic data is heavy. ADP Employment Change will be released at 8:15 a.m. ET before the trade balance crosses the wires at 8:30 a.m. ET. Then, at 9:45 a.m. ET, Markit US Services PMI is released. Data continues to flow at 10 a.m. ET as ISM non-manufacturing, factory orders, and durable goods are due out. Finally, at 10:30 a.m. ET, Department of Energy oil inventories are announced. The US 10-year yield is up 1 basis point at 1.70%.