Economy
The majority of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee remains against raising interest rates, voting 7-2 to maintain a record low rate of 0.5%, minutes from the October 7-8 meeting show. The minutes said that for most members, there remained "insufficient evidence" of inflationary pressure to raise rates. The decision comes days after the bank's chief economist, Andrew Haldane, signaled he's gloomy about the economy, and that interest rates should remain low to avoid long-term economic stagnation.

Following the submission of euro zone countries' budgets to Brussels for review last week, France and Italy will likely hear back today that their budget plans risk breaching EU rules, FT reports. France is required to get its deficit back under the EU ceiling of 3% of economic output by next year but its plan ignored that commitment. Italy must modify its structural budget into balance by 2015, as its public debt currently sits at 135% of GDP, far above the EU ceiling of 60%.

The euro fell to a one-week low this morning following reports that the ECB is considering buying corporate bonds on the secondary market, expanding upon its private-sector asset-buying program which it began on Monday. The euro is down to $1.2694, its lowest level since Thursday. U.S. CPI data due at 8:30 p.m. ET is expected to reveal a flat annual core CPI inflation at 1.7% in September, but a softer reading could undermine the dollar by adding to speculation that the Fed could wait longer before raising rates.

Russia and Ukraine failed to reach a gas deal during EU-brokered talks yesterday but agreed to meet again next week in Brussels. Russia added new conditions to resuming gas supplies to Ukraine, including evidence to be submitted within five days that international lenders or other organizations were able to guarantee Kiev as good for its money. Both countries previously settled on a price for the gas, and Ukraine has also agreed to pay back $3.1B of debt to Gazprom (OTCPK:OGZPY).

Stocks
Apple and GT Advanced have agreed to wind down Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) Mesa, AZ plant, once expected to provide sapphire that would be used to protect millions of Apple device screens. The plant's sapphire furnaces (owned/operated by GT) will be sold and some of the proceeds used to pay down GT's (NASDAQ:GTAT) debt to Apple. The deal suggests Apple will be turning to 3rd-party sapphire suppliers to obtain cover glass for the Apple Watch, which is set to ship in early 2015.

Sony is considering cutting its smartphone sales target again, from the current goal of 43M for the 12 months to the end of March 2015. The move would mark the second downward revision this year, which previously had a goal of 50M. Sony (NYSE:SNE) continues to struggle due to fierce smartphone competition especially in emerging markets, against Chinese makers of cheap handsets and market leaders such as Apple (AAPL) and Samsung (OTC:SSNLF, OTC:SSNGY).

EMC is buying out much of Cisco's stake in the companies' VCE JV, which sells high-end integrated server/storage/networking systems (the Vblock line), Bloomberg reports. EMC (NYSE:EMC) owns 58% of VCE, and Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) 35%. The report followed a statement from EMC that the company will be announcing a "new business development" today, to go with its Q3 report. Cisco stated in July it had invested $716M in VCE, and recorded $644M in losses related to it since the JV's founding in 2010.

Johnson & Johnson will begin testing an Ebola vaccine on humans in January, and plans to have 250K doses of the experimental vaccine ready for use in clinical trials in May. The drug will combine a shot from the company's Janssen unit with one developed by Bavarian Nordic (OTCPK:BVNRY). J&J (NYSE:JNJ) will invest about $200M to study and expand production of the vaccine, and aims to produce 1M doses next year.

Meanwhile, Tekmira has begun limited manufacturing of a therapeutic part of its TKM-Ebola program, which will be available by early December. The company's investigational new drug application to U.S. regulators for TKM-Ebola remains on partial clinical hold, although U.S. and Canadian regulators authorized its use last month for patients who have confirmed or suspected infections from the deadly virus. TKMR +16.4% premarket.

Lufthansa is close to selling its IT infrastructure unit to IBM (NYSE:IBM), including an outsourcing agreement for the services, as part of a restructuring to better position itself to compete with low-cost carriers and Gulf rivals. The move will reduce Lufthansa's (OTCQX:DLAKY) annual IT costs by around €70M a year, but will result in a €240M ($305.2M) charge this year. Under the planned deal, Lufthansa will outsource all of its IT infrastructure services to IBM under a seven-year agreement. A final price for the sale is still being negotiated.

Siemens is in advanced talks to sell its hearing-aid business, which could be valued at up to €2B ($2.55B), WSJ reports. P-E firm Permira Holdings is bidding for the hearing-aid unit by itself, while rival EQT Partners, may form a consortium with hearing aid maker GN Store Nord (OTCPK:GNNDY) to acquire the assets. Siemens (OTCPK:SIEGY) tried to sell the unit in 2010 but was unable to find a buyer due to its declining operating profit at the time.

Total will convene an emergency board meeting this morning to select a new CEO, and likely will separate the roles of chairman and CEO, following the death of Christophe de Margerie. The top contenders for CEO are said to be Patrick Pouyanné, the head of Total’s (NYSE:TOT) refining and chemicals division, and Philippe Boisseau, who runs marketing and new energy operations.

The NHTSA has expanded its warning about faulty airbags made by Takata (OTCPK:TKTDY) to 6.1M U.S. vehicles. "The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration urges owners of certain Toyota (NYSE:TM), Honda (NYSE:HMC), Mazda (OTCPK:MZDAY), BMW (OTCPK:BAMXY), Nissan (OTCPK:NSANY), Mitsubishi (OTC:MMTOY), Subaru (OTCPK:FUJHY), Chrysler (NYSE:FCAU), Ford (NYSE:F) and General Motors (NYSE:GM) vehicles to act immediately on recall notices to replace defective Takata airbags," it said in a statement. The previous warning, issued on Monday, covered 4.7M vehicles.

Ford is the next to abandon the Pimco Total Return Fund (NYSEARCA:BOND), dropping the fund from its 401k plan as a result of the departure of Bill Gross. "Effective Nov. 14, 2014, the Pimco Total Return Fund is being removed from Ford's (F) investment lineup," says the company.

Daimler has sold its 4% stake in Tesla, and terminated the share-price hedge it started in 2013. The sale will "result in a cash inflow of around $780M" for Daimler (OTCPK:DDAIF). Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) also took a hit yesterday after Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed a bill which will limit the ability of the electric carmaker to sell outside of the state's traditional dealership network. Michigan now becomes the fifth U.S. state to keep Tesla from selling cars directly to consumers.

Today's economic calendar:

7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
8:30 Consumer Price Index
10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories

Notable earnings before today's open: ABB, ABT, ANGI, APH, BA, BABY, BEAV, BIIB, BPOP, BSX, DOW, EMC, EVR, FDML, FNB, GD, GNTX, GRA, HCBK, ICLR, IPG, IR, KNX, LL, MDCO, MKTX, NOC, NSC, NTRS, NYCB, OC, PII, R, SEIC, SLGN, SPG, SWK, TMO, TUP, USB, WIT, WRLD, XRX

Notable earnings after today's close: ACTG, ALB, ALGT, AWH, BCR, BDN, CA, CAKE, CLB, CLGX, CLW, CTXS, CVA, EEFT, EFX, EGHT, FTK, FTNT, GGG, IBKC, INFN, LEG, LHO, LOGI, LRCX, MKSI, MKTO, MLNX, MSA, NOW, NXPI, ORLY, OTEX, PLCM, PLXS, RE, RJF, SCSS, SFG, SGMO, SHLM, SKX, SLG, SLM, SUSQ, T, TAL, TCBI, TER, TILE, TMK, TSCO, TYL, USTR, VAR, WFT, YELP