These are the top 5 things to know today.
1. China growth reassures against hard landing
Chinese gross domestic product (GDP) showed growth of 6.7% in the third quarter.
Wednesday’s major global data point came out in line with forecasts and helped reassure market participants that the world’s second largest economy was not suffering from a hard landing.
Among the details, construction helped to drive growth, with real estate investment jumping by 7.1% over the last year and infrastructure spending up by 19.4%. The services sector grew by 7.6%.
Stateside, investors will digest the latest indicators on the U.S. housing market with housing starts and building permits for September out at 12:30GMT Wednesday.
2. Oil passes $51 on inventory draw
Oil prices were rising more than 1% on Wednesday, with West Texas passing the $51 level, after the American Petroleum Institute reported late Tuesday that U.S. crude stockpiles fell by 3.8 million barrels.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is due to release official crude storage data later on Wednesday with expectations for a build of 2.705 million barrels.
Oil prices were also supported by a weaker dollar and remarks out from the Saudi Arabian oil minister that suggested that the alignment among major producers to reach an agreement on output was increasing.
U.S. crude gained 1.51% to $51.05 a barrel at 09:51GMT, while Brent traded up 1.47%, to $52.44 a barrel.
3. U.S. earnings may break losing streak
As the reporting season continues in full-swing, S&P 500 earnings are now expected have increased slightly in the third quarter, reversing forecasts for another quarter of profit declines, Thomson Reuters data showed.
If the current trend continues, it would mark an end to the U.S. profit recession that began in the third quarter of 2015 and fuel investor hopes that better earnings can boost U.S. stocks in the final months of the year.
With 52 S&P components having reported as of Tuesday morning, third-quarter earnings have shown growth of 8.19%, according to data from The Earnings Scout, as reported by CNBC.
Of those firms, 83% have beaten bottom-line estimates, according to the report.
4. Morgan Stanley and American Express in the earnings spotlight
Among the slew of earnings to be reported on Wednesday, market participants will focus on third-quarter numbers from Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) slated to be released at 11:00GMT.
Analysts are forecasting earnings per share (EPS) of $0.63 on revenue of $8.05 billion.
American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) will also be in the spotlight after the market close. Consensus estimates the credit card company to report an EPS of $0.97 on revenue of $7.66 billion.
5. Global stocks mostly lower
Global stocks were mostly lower after China’s third-quarter growth matched the consensus forecast and oil moved higher on data showing a decrease in U.S. crude inventories.
In Asia, despite the expected reading on growth in the world’s second largest economy, the DJ Shanghai index ended down 0.05%, though both Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 managed to end Wednesday with small gains.
European stocks were lower on Wednesday, as investors became more cautious ahead of the European Central Bank’s upcoming policy meeting on Thursday.
U.S. stock futures traded flat on Wednesday as investors looked forward to earnings for more references on the health of corporate profit and waited for indicators on the state of the housing market.
The blue-chip Dow futures slipped 6 points, or 0.03%, by 9:54GMT, the S&P 500 futures gave up 1 point, or 0.06%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 8 points, or 0.16%.