* European stock futures down slightly
* Asian shares mixed, Tokyo up
* Sanofi to buy Kadmon in $1.9 bln deal
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TIME TO JOIN THE GREEN BOND GANG (0653 GMT)
As governments get back to business with debt issuance after the summer break, there's
something notable about this week's debt sales in Europe -- it's green.
Germany on Wednesday will sell 10-year green bonds, a day after Spain's debut green bond
garnered an impressive 60 billion euros of demand.
Green debt issuance globally, recently passed $1 trillion for the first time, with 90% of
sovereign issuance coming from Europe. Britain will sell its first green bond later this month
while the European Union plans its first green issue in October.
A greenium index compiled by UniCredit, has risen to 4 basis points, its highest level,
indicating that demand for green paper remains strong and investors are willing to pay a premium
to buy green European government debt.
Back to Germany. The benchmark euro zone debt issuer wants to be the first to establish a
green bond yield curve and Wednesday's issuance takes it a step closer to that goal.
Another market that's seen action this week is Bitcoin. It seems to have stabilised
after a 17% plunge on Tuesday, the day it become legal lender for the first time in a
sovereign state. However El Salvador's bitcoin adoption was clouded by the price fall as well as
technological glitches and protests by mistrustful citizens.
Global stock markets too have stablised after Tuesday's wild swings but growth concerns are
weighing, with Asian shares down, Europe poised to open negative and U.S. equity futures a touch
higher.
Later in the day, watch for U.S. JOLTS job openings data and a raft of Fed speakers. And on
Wall Street, GameStop, the original 'meme stock,' releases earnings.
Key developments that should provide more direction to markets on Wednesday:
- UK supermarket Morrisons is talking to its private equity suitors and the UK
Takeover Panel regarding an auction to settle its future ownership.
- Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank CEOs attend Handelsblatt conference
- Japan upgrades Q2 GDP on stronger business spending
- PayPal heats up buy now, pay later race with $2.7 bln Japan deal
- Interest rate meetings in Canada, Poland, Croatia
- Fed speakers: New York President John Williams 1710 GMT; Dallas President Robert Kaplan
2200 GMT; Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari 1800 GMT
- U.S. auctions 10-year bonds.
- US JOLTS job openings, Initial jobless claims, consumer credit
(Dhara Ranasinghe)
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EUROPE HEADS SOUTH (0620 GMT)
European equities look set to kick off the day just slightly in the red with futures on top
country benchmarks losing as much as 0.4% at the time of writing.
The mood in Asia wasn't exactly buoyant and although Tokyo managed to reverse initial losses
to extend its recent run driven by stimulus bets, broader equity gauges were in the red.
Meantime in the U.S. futures pointed to possible gains later on as investors await
indications from Fed speakers about how Friday's weak jobs report has impacted tapering plans.
In Europe the focus is on the ECB policy meeting on Thursday where the central bank could
unveil plans to slow down its massive bond purchases.
In corporate news, M&A could help liven up the session. French drugmaker Sanofi agreed to
buy U.S. peer Kadmon in a $1.9 billion deal, while UK tech firm Smiths Group is to sell its
medical unit to UICU Medical for $2.4 billion.
(Danilo Masoni)
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