Here is what you need to know.
It’s a Fed day. The Federal Open Market Committee will announce its latest policy decision at 2 p.m. ET. Fed fund futures data compiled by Bloomberg shows just a 16.1% chance of an interest-rate hike at Wednesday’s meeting and assigns a 68% likelihood of a 25-basis-point hike before the end of the year.
The Mexican peso is getting clobbered. The peso, which has lately been used as a barometer for Donald Trump’s chances of winning the election, is down another 1% at 19.3770 per dollar on Wednesday and at its weakest level in a month. A weaker peso has been viewed as a sign Trump is gaining momentum because of his tough talk on Mexico.
German manufacturing leads Europe. Markit manufacturing PMI for the eurozone rose from 52.6 in September to 53.5 in October, beating the flash estimate of 53.3. Germany recorded a print of 55.0, making for the fastest growth in three years. The euro is up 0.2% at 1.1080 against the dollar.
HSBC thinks gold will go up no matter who wins the election. In a note to clients, James Steel, the chief precious-metals analyst at HSBC, wrote that a Clinton win means gold will go as high as $1,440 by the end of 2017 while a Trump win could propel the metal to $1,575 by the end of next year.
Valeant is in talks to sell a family jewel. The embattled drugmaker is in talks with Takeda to sell its Salix unit for $10 billion, The Wall Street Journal reports. The crown jewel of Salix is Xifaxan, a drug that cures irritable bowel syndrome.
Herbalife named a new CEO. The nutritional-supplement maker says current COO Richard Goudis will become CEO when Michael Johnson makes the move to executive chairman in June.
Sturm Ruger had a monster quarter. The gunmaker earned $1.03 a share as net sales exploded 34% year-over-year to $161 million. The company cited "stronger than normal demand" in the months ahead of the election for the blowout quarter.
Stock markets are the world are lower. Japan's Nikkei (-1.8%) trailed in Asia, and Germany's DAX (-0.9%) is under pressure in Europe. The S&P 500 is looking at a lower open of about 0.3% near 2,106.
Earnings reporting remains heavy. Alibaba, Clorox, Office Depot, and Time Warner are among the companies reporting ahead of the opening bell, while Facebook, Fitbit, Twenty-First Century Fox, Whole Foods Market, Wynn Resorts, and Yelp highlight the names releasing their quarterly results after markets close.
US economic data is light. ADP Employment Change is due out at 8:15 a.m. ET, and the Department of Energy's oil inventories will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is down 4 basis points at 1.79%.