1. Catalonia calls time out: Investors are welcoming a decision by Catalonia’s separatists to postpone a formal declaration of independence from Spain.
Spain’s benchmark stock index shot up 1.5% on Wednesday and the euro was trading higher.
Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont backed away from the cliff edge on Tuesday, choosing to put an independence declaration on hold and instead pursue dialogue with the central government in Madrid.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy called for an extraordinary meeting of his cabinet on Wednesday.
2. NAFTA talks: Round four of talks to renegotiate NAFTA will begin in Washington on Wednesday.
The Trump administration is trying to redraft parts of the free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico that it believes are unfair.
A new deal is supposed to be done by the end of 2017, but little progress on thorny issues has been reported.
3. Airlines fly high: Delta Air Lines will report earnings before the opening bell.
Its competitors United Continental and American Airlines both upgraded their outlooks on Tuesday. Their shares were among the biggest risers on the market.
Airlines have benefited from low fuel prices, but competition in the U.S. market is intense.
4. Global market overview: U.S. stock futures were edging lower.
Markets in Europe and Asia were mixed.
The Dow Jones industrial average added 0.3% on Tuesday, reaching a new all-time high. The S&P 500 gained 0.2% and the Nasdaq increased 0.1%.
5. Earnings and companies: Asset manager BlackRock is set to release its earnings report before the opening bell.
The U.S. crude inventories report for the week of October 7 will be published at 10:30 a.m. ET.
OPEC’s monthly oil report is also slated for release.
Shares in Kobe Steel, a Japanese company that has admitted to faking data about its products, dropped another 17% in Tokyo. The scandal has now wiped away more than a third of the firm’s market value.
6. Coming this week:
Wednesday — Delta earnings; BlackRock earnings
Thursday — JPMorgan earnings; Citigroup earnings
Friday — Bank of America earnings; Wells Fargo earnings
