Economy
Market expectations are sky-high for the ECB's probable plunge into full-scale quantitative easing, with an announcement from Mario Draghi anticipated to come at 13:30 GMT. Sources seem to agree that the ECB has proposed buying €50B of bonds each month from March, although it was so far unclear if it would continue for one or two years. The euro is steady near $1.16 against the dollar, with most European shares and U.S. futures higher.

China’s central bank injected $8B of capital support into the country's financial markets today, spurring speculation that further loosening of monetary policy may be on the way as the economy grows at its slowest rate in more than two decades. Almost fully recovering from Monday's 8% plunge, the Shanghai Composite closed up 0.6% on the news. The move also comes ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday next month when demand for funds normally increases substantially.

Following in the footsteps of Australia, which two years ago enacted a law forcing cigarettes to be sold in plain olive green packaging, the British government will try to pass a law before May forcing tobacco firms to sell cigarettes in plain packs. Around 3.4% fewer cigarettes were sold in Australia in 2013, compared with 2012. The tobacco industry has fiercely resisted the new law, arguing that plain packs infringe on the intellectual property rights covering brands.

Stocks
LG Electronics says it did not encounter any overheating problems with Qualcomm's (NASDAQ:QCOM) new Snapdragon 810 processor that will be powering its LG (OTC:LGEAF) G Flex2 - the curved smartphone that will go on sale later this month. The comment comes after a Bloomberg report yesterday which stated that Samsung (OTC:SSNLF) dropped the new Qualcomm processor from its next Galaxy S due to the chip overheating during testing.

eBay has announced an agreement with activist investor Carl Icahn, whose demand for a PayPal spinoff was satisfied last September. Icahn Capital executive Jonathan Christodoro will be joining eBay's board, and Icahn will have the right to decide whether Christodoro serves on eBay or PayPal's board after the spinoff. eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) also confirmed plans to cut 2,400 jobs from its workforce, while announcing fourth-quarter earnings that slightly topped Wall Street expectations. EBAY +3.5% premarket.

Though both companies have issued statements denying M&A talks, Samsung (OTC:SSNLF) is "actively pursuing a plan to take over or buy a significant stake in BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY)," Canada's Financial Post reports. The paper says it obtained a document prepped for Samsung by investment bank Evercore that "outlines the case for, and the potential structure of a possible purchase of BlackBerry." BBRY +5.7% premarket.

SanDisk says revenue will continue to contract through the first half of 2015 as it focuses on rebuilding inventory. The flash-memory maker announced a 40% fall in profit and a gross margin drop to 42.6% from 49.6%, well below the company’s revised projection. SanDisk (NASDAQ:SNDK) sees $1.4B-$1.45B in revenue for the current quarter and between $6.5B-$6.8B for the year, compared with a consensus of $1.6B and $7.23B, respectively. SNDK -7.1% premarket.

The Barclays dark pool drama continues, after NY AG Eric Schneiderman accused the British bank of defying subpoenas seeking the testimony of two executives. Previously, the AG accused the bank of false representation and favoring high frequency traders over other investors in its dark pool. Barclays (NYSE:BCS) says Schneiderman is overreaching, but it will "continue to seek to cooperate" with the lawsuit.

Family Dollar shareholders are expected to vote today in favor of a pending $8.5B merger with Dollar Tree (NASDAQ:DLTR) despite a higher $9.1B offer from Dollar General (NYSE:DG) still on the table, sources tell Reuters. Family Dollar (NYSE:FDO) and two influential proxy firms are pushing for the deal with Dollar Tree, which said it would divest as many outlets as required to get antitrust approval. Dollar General has said it would only shed up to 1,500 stores.

Hyundai Motor reported a fourth straight quarterly profit decline this morning, hurt by a weak performance in Russia due to the ruble and increased buying incentives in the U.S. Net profit for the October-December period fell to 1.66T won ($1.53B) down from 2.13T won a year earlier. Hyundai (OTC:HYMLF) expects currency risks to persist in Russia and other emerging markets through 2015.

Despite beating analysts' expectations in its Q4 results, American Express (NYSE:AXP) is down 1.9% premarket after announcing plans to cut more than 4,000 jobs this year as part of a restructuring, while taking a $313M charge this quarter "to improve operating efficiencies." The credit-card issuer's fourth quarter net income came in at $1.447B or $1.39 per share vs. $1.308B and $1.21 one year ago.

Google is getting ready to "sell mobile phone plans directly to customers and manage their calls and mobile data over a cellular network," The Information reports. Putting pressure on AT&T (NYSE:T) and Verizon (NYSE:VZ), Google's (GOOG, GOOGL) new service, codenamed "Nova," is expected to run on Sprint (NYSE:S) and T-Mobile’s (NYSE:TMUS) networks.

After lawyers for both companies made final presentations on Wednesday, Johnson & Johnson's (NYSE:JNJ) multibillion-dollar trial with Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) over its purchase of device maker Guidant now lies in the hands of a federal judge. As Guidant’s successor, J&J is seeking more than $7.2B in damages and interest from Boston Scientific for violating clauses included under their agreement to combine in 2004.

While reporting fourth quarter results, Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) has announced that it will buy Hiland Partners for $3B, a pipeline and logistics company founded by Harold Hamm. Richard Kinder also confirmed that he is stepping down from his CEO role in June, to be replaced by current COO Steve Kean. Net income for the fourth quarter was $566M vs. $704M last year, as one-time items such as an impairment charge on the company's oil and gas properties hurt results. KMI -1.8% premarket.

Today's economic calendar:

8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
9:00 FHFA House Price Index
9:45 Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index
10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
11:00 EIA Petroleum Inventories
4:30 PM Money Supply
4:30 PM Fed Balance Sheet

Notable earnings before today's open: ALK, AVT, BBT, BKU, BPOP, COV, CP, CY, DLX, FBC, FCS, FNB, GMT, HBAN, JCI, JNS, KEY, LUV, NTCT, ORI, PCP, QSII, SBNY, TDY, TRV, TZOO, UAL, UNP, VZ, WBS, XRS

Notable earnings after today's close: ALTR, ASB, CE, COF, CYN, DGII, EGHT, ETFC, FII, HBHC, HXL, INFN, ISRG, KLAC, MSCC, MXIM, PLCM, RMD, SBUX, SIVB, SWKS, WAL