Economy
World stocks inched up and U.S. bond yields steadied after almost three weeks of gains this morning with the Fed expected to announce the completion of its quantitative easing program. The Fed kicks off a two-day meeting later with markets betting on an announcement that will end its six years of aggressive monetary stimulus and that it will likely wait a long while before hiking interest rates.

Hoping to avoid a showdown with the European Commission tomorrow, France says it will cut its budget deficit next year by an additional €3.6B, boosting the country’s structural adjustment efforts to above 0.5%. Until recently, France committed to reduce its budget deficit to 3% of GDP by next year, and was supposed to cut its structural deficit target by 0.8 percentage points, as outlined by EU rules. However, Paris said earlier this month that next year’s budget deficit would be closer to 4.3% of GDP, and promised a mere 0.2 point improvement on its structural deficit target.

The CDC has published new guidelines on healthcare workers who have returned from caring for Ebola patients in Africa following days of disagreements between the federal government and state governors. The guidelines recommend that people at high risk of developing Ebola voluntarily isolate themselves from others for 21 days. Several states, including New York and New Jersey, still require mandatory quarantines on the healthcare workers, which has triggered the tensions with the White House.

Stocks
Alibaba's Jack Ma says he is open to working with Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) on mobile payments, but cautioned that it should be a "marriage" that both sides want. The Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) executive chairman made the announcement late Monday night ahead of a week-long visit to a number of Hollywood studios in search of media partners. The news follows drugstore chains CVS (NYSE:CVS) and Rite Aid's (NYSE:RAD) decision yesterday to disable Apple Pay from working in their outlets across the U.S.

Madison Square Garden is exploring splitting into two companies, according to Bloomberg. The division would see the sports and media businesses held by one firm and the real estate holdings in the other. Nelson Peltz will also join Madison Square Garden's (NASDAQ:MSG) board, tip sources. MSG +16.6% premarket.

UBS reported this morning that its third-quarter profit increased 32% Y/Y despite a loss of 1.8B Swiss francs in litigation charges. The bank reported net profit of 762M francs ($802M), up from 577M francs reported in the same period a year ago. UBS (NYSE:UBS) does not expect its regulatory environment to improve soon, warning that charges associated with litigation, regulatory and similar matters will remain elevated for the foreseeable future. UBS +4.4% premarket.

Forrest Norrod, formerly the head of Dell's server ops, is now the general manager of AMD's (NYSE:AMD) enterprise, embedded, and semi-custom chip unit. AMD's enterprise, embedded, and semi-custom chip sales rose 21% Y/Y in Q3, and accounted for 45% of total revenue. For now, the unit's sales depend heavily on PS4/Xbox One APU shipments, but AMD is making big investments to grow its server CPU lineup (both ARM and x86).

Softbank has agreed to buy a $627M stake in Indian online retailer Snapdeal, making it the largest investor in the e-commerce firm. "We believe India is at a turning point in its development and have confidence that India will grow strongly over the next decade," says Softbank (OTCPK:SFTBY) chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son. The deal aims to strengthen the Japanese telecom group's presence in India and leverage synergies with its network of Internet companies around the world.

With October sales having been "softer than the balance of the quarter," Kohl's (NYSE:KSS) expects to report a 1.4% Y/Y drop in FQ3 comparable sales. FY14 (ends Jan. '15) sales are now expected to be at the low end of a $4.05-$4.45 guidance range; consensus is at $4.30. The guidance cut comes ahead of the company's investor conference tomorrow. KSS -4.9% premarket.

Holcim and Lafarge have formally notified the European Commission of their merger plan, which will create the world's largest cement group with $44B in annual sales. The deal is sure to result in multi-billion dollar disposals to secure regulatory approval. Holcim (OTCPK:HCMLY) and Lafarge (OTCPK:LFRGY) are in ongoing talks with buyers of assets they are planning to sell, and plan to close the deal during the first half of 2015.

The Dutch arm of Air France-KLM is planning to slash 7,500 jobs (25% of its workforce) largely through outsourcing, Reuters reports quoting Algemeen Dagblad. The move is expected to be announced tomorrow with the release of Air France-KLM's (OTC:AFRAF) quarterly earnings. KLM hopes the measure will help it cut €4.4B ($5.6B) in outstanding debt by reducing costs.

Blackstone is looking to raise around $13B for its next flagship global real estate fund, in line with its predecessor fund, Blackstone Real Estate Partners VII, which raised $13.4B in 2012. The P-E firm has already started preliminary conversations with potential investors about the new fund and expects marketing documents to be ready in the next few weeks. Blackstone (NYSE:BX) derived 45% of its earnings from real estate in the first nine months of 2014.

Twitter shares are down 12.1% premarket after issuing guidance that disappointed investors. The tech firm announced Q4 guidance in the range of $440M-$450M. Analyst estimates for that quarter averaged $448M. Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) averaged 284M monthly active users (MAUs) in Q3, +5% Q/Q and +23% Y/Y; Q2's Q/Q growth was 6%. Timeline views +5% Q/Q and +14% Y/Y to 181B.

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki is considering the addition of a paid-subscription business model to the world’s largest online video website. A paid, ad-free subscription version of YouTube (GOOG, GOOGL) would give users more choice and work well in a world where viewers are increasingly watching videos through apps on mobile devices, says Wojcicki during the Code Mobile conference in Half Moon Bay, California. About a year ago, YouTube allowed content providers to create their own subscription-based channels and to charge a fee to watch their content, but never offered a paid-subscription option that excluded ads.

Today's economic calendar:

FOMC meeting begins
7:45 ICSC Retail Store Sales
8:30 Durable Goods
8:55 Redbook Chain Store Sales
9:00 S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index
10:00 Richmond Fed Mfg.
10:00 Consumer Confidence
10:00 State Street Investor Confidence Index
1:00 PM Results of $29B, 2-Year Note Auction

Notable earnings before today's open: ACI, AET, AGCO, AIXG, ALR, AME, AMTD, AN, AXE, BP, CAS, CIT, CMI, CNC, CNX, COH, CPLA, CRY, CVLT, CYNO, DD, DIN, ECL, ENTG, FCX, FDP, FLWS, FMER, GLPI, GLW, HCA, HMC, HOT, HRS, ICON, IIVI, IPGP, LH, MDSO, MLM, MMC, MSM, MSO, MWV, NBL, NCI, NVS, PCAR, PCG, PES, PFE, PH, POR, RDWR, SAIA, SAVE, SCHN, SCOR, SHW, SIRI, SNCR, ST, SYRG, TECH, TKR, TRW, TTS, TWI, UBS, UTHR, VDSI, VRTS, VSH, WAB, WHR, XYL

Notable earnings after today's close: AEC, AFG, AFL, AJG, AMCC, AMP, APC, ARI, AZPN, BGFV, BLDP, BOOM, BXP, CAP, CBT, CEB, CHMT, CHRW, CINF, CRAY, DLR, DNB, DYAX, EA, EIX, EPR, EQR, ESRX, EXP, EXTR, FARO, FB, FEIC, FISV, GFIG, GILD, GPRE, HIW, HLIT, HTA, HTS, HURN, INAP, INVN, IPHI, KEYW, KIM, KONA, MAC, MAR, MCK, MRCY, MWA, NANO, NFX, OI, PEI, PLT, PNRA, PSMT, RJET, ROG, RPXC, SKT, SM, SWI, TQNT, TRN, TSS, UDR, ULTI, USNA, VRSK, VRTX, WDC, WES, WGP, WNC, WSH, WTS, WYNN, X, XCO, XOOM, ZLTQ