10 things you need to know before the opening bell

Here is what you need to know.

Italy just sold $6.5 billion of debt - and it shows how little faith the markets have in the country. While it succeeded in selling its debt, Italy was forced to pay a major premium in yields.

The euro is bouncing back. The single currency trades up 0.4% at 1.1593 versus the US dollar after touching an 11-month low on Tuesday.

Ad guru Martin Sorrel is back. The former WPP boss, who was forced out amid an investigation into allegations of improper behavior and misuse of assets - which he denied, has formed a new investment vehicle, S4 Capital.

The annual bidding for lunch with Warren Buffett is open. Bidding, which continues through 7:30 p.m. ET on Friday, reached $1.55 million Wednesday morning.

Microsoft surpasses Alphabet's market cap for the first time in 3 years. Microsoft became the third most-valuable company in the world on Tuesday as its market cap ended the day at $753 billion, passing Alphabet's $739 billion.

The owner of MoviePass pops after Citadel Securities discloses a stake. MoviePass owner Helios & Matheson spiked more than 15% Tuesday after market maker Citadel Securities disclosed a 5.4% stake in the company.

Salesforce blows part targets. The cloud-computing giant beat on both the top and bottom lines and said it expects to earn an adjusted $2.29 to $2.31 a share for fiscal year 2019 on revenue of $13.08 billion to $13.13 billion, well ahead of the $2.13 and $12.75 billion that analysts were expecting.

Stock markets around the world are mixed. Japan's Nikkei (-1.52%) trailed in Asia and Germany's DAX (+0.29%) leads in Europe. The S&P 500 is set to open up 0.57% near 2,705.

Earnings reports keep coming. Dick's Sporting Goods and Michael Kors will report ahead of the opening bell.

US economic flows. ADP employment change will be released at 8:15 a.m. ET before GDP crosses the wires at 8:30 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is up 8 basis points at 2.86%.