Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf returns to Capitol Hill today to testify before the House Financial Services Committee over a sales scandal that has become a major issue in Washington and on Wall Street. The misconduct has triggered lawsuits, investigations and wiped more than $20B off the bank's market value, and led California to suspend its business relationship and impose sanctions on Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) for one year.

Economy

The world's biggest oil producers have agreed to cap output for the first time since the financial crisis. After hours of talks in Algiers, OPEC members committed to lowering production to between 32.5M-33M barrels a day, marking a drop of nearly 750K barrels from August. Oil prices, however, are currently edging off their highs as some investors take profits on Wednesday's more than 5% surge.

In its final estimate for Q2, data from the U.S. Commerce Department today is expected to show GDP increased at a soft 1.3% annual rate, slightly up from the 1.1% pace reported last month. Masked in the data is impressive strength in consumer spending, but non-residential investment and inventory growth have been very weak. While this has pulled down the overall GDP figure, the need to replenish inventories may be positive for both Q3 growth and employment.

Shrugging off Brexit? Eurozone economic sentiment was much better than expected in September thanks to a rebound of confidence in the bloc's largest economies. The economic sentiment index rose to 104.9 from 103.5 in August, according to the European Commission, beating expectations of no change and moving further above the long-term average of 100.0.

Averting an election-year crisis, Congress late Wednesday sent President Obama a bill to keep the government operating through Dec. 9 and provide $1.1B in long-delayed funding to battle the Zika virus. The measure also includes $500M for rebuilding assistance to flood-ravaged Louisiana and other states, and contains an aid provision for Flint, Michigan, to address its water crisis.

Despite the U.S. territory's debt moratorium, Scotiabank (NYSE:BNS) has filed a lawsuit against Puerto Rico seeking repayment of a multimillion-dollar loan, marking the first time the island's been sued over something other than bond payments. A federal judge is expected to decide soon whether Puerto Rico will have to pay its debts regardless of U.S. legislation enacted in June that protects it from lawsuits through February 2017.

Congress has turned aside a last-ditch lobbying effort by the White House and Saudi Arabia to override President Obama's veto of a bill that would allow the kingdom to be sued for involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks. Obama called the move "a dangerous precedent" as other countries may respond by allowing their citizens to sue U.S. personnel overseas, who are usually protected by the concept of sovereign immunity.

Joint military exercises scheduled next month between the Philippines and the U.S. will be the last for the longtime allies, as President Rodrigo Duterte seeks to build stronger trade and investment ties with China and Russia. Meanwhile, the U.S. military is deploying some 600 additional troops to Iraq as part of a campaign to retake Mosul from Islamic State, raising the number of U.S. troops on the ground to about 5,000.

Stocks

Slashing more than a fifth of its workforce, Commerzbank (OTCPK:CRZBY) will cut nearly 10,000 jobs and stop paying dividends for the time being as it restructures to become profitable by 2020. Germany's second biggest lender expects restructuring costs of €1.1B as it combines business segments and cuts costs to offset the drag from low loan demand and negative interest rates.

Roughly 100 North American oil and gas companies have filed for bankruptcy since the start of a two-year oil price rout, and the industry may be only halfway done, according to restructuring specialists. Despite OPEC's oil deal, "there's going to have to be more filings just because there's no price out there that's foreseeable that's going to bail these companies out," said Patrick Hughes, partner at Haynes and Boone.

Already reeling from a global recall of its Note 7 smartphones, Samsung Electronics (OTC:SSNLF) said it was in talks with a U.S. watchdog to address potential safety issues related to some of its washing machines. The comments come as the Consumer Product Safety Commission warned of problems with Samsung top-load washers, following media reports that they had exploded.

Apple is bolstering its growing business with corporate IT customers, as the company moves to capitalize on BlackBerry's (NASDAQ:BBRY) withdrawal from the smartphone market. As part of the deal, Deloitte will create a "first-of-its-kind" practice focused on Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) products. The tie-up marks Apple's fourth significant partner in business technology following deals with IBM, Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) and SAP over the last two years.

According to a new court filing, ex-Fox News anchor Andrea Tantaros told her therapist that former network chairman Roger Ailes sexually harassed her two years before she went public with allegations the company said she made up. Ailes resigned in July after another former anchor, Gretchen Carlson, sued him for sexual harassment. Fox (FOX, FOXA) agreed to pay $20M to settle Carlson's case earlier this month.

Medtronic has won U.S. approval for an "artificial pancreas" that is the first device to automatically deliver the right dose of insulin to patients with type 1 diabetes, freeing them from continually monitoring insulin levels throughout each day. Analysts said the FDA approved the device, called MiniMed 670G, six months sooner than expected, however, it still won't be available until the spring of 2017.

HP has apologized and promised a fix for customers affected by a software update that caused some printers to stop working with third-party ink cartridges. "Although only a small number of customers have been affected, one customer who has a poor experience is one too many," said Jon Flaxman, HP's (NYSE:HPQ) chief operating officer.

With competition heating up with Apple (AAPL) for the future of digital music, Spotify (Private:MUSIC) is in advanced talks to purchase SoundCloud, FT reports. Spotify has 100M users globally, and this month hit 40M paying subscribers. Apple Music has 17M subscribers, and SoundCloud recently launched its own paid service. Interested parties include Pandora (NYSE:P).

Scottrade Financial Services is working with advisers on a possible sale that could interest rivals like TD Ameritrade (NASDAQ:AMTD). Scottrade was among the discount brokerage pioneers, and provides a broad range of retail brokerage, investment advisory, and banking services through four different subsidiaries. Sources told Bloomberg the company could be valued at $4B.

Looking to finally put away its emissions blues, Volkswagen (OTCPK:VLKAY) CEO Matthias Mueller said he hopes the U.S. Justice Department will reach a conclusion in its investigation of the German automaker by Christmas. On Tuesday, a Bloomberg report said the DOJ was assessing how big a criminal fine it can obtain from VW without putting it out of business.

The future is electric at the Paris Motor Show, as the world's biggest carmakers unveil plans to accelerate development of EVs. About two dozen new electric models are set to debut and there will be announcements by VW (OTCPK:VLKAY), Porsche (OTCPK:POAHY) and Daimler (OTCPK:DDAIY) that demonstrate how Tesla's (NASDAQ:TSLA) achievements are spurring conventional automakers to respond. Also on the radar: Supercars, SUVs and car tech.

Wednesday's Key Earnings

BlackBerry (BBRY) +5.7% outsourcing its handset business.

Today's Markets

In Asia, Japan +1.4% to 16693. Hong Kong +0.5% to 23739. China +0.4% to 2998. India -1.6% to 27827.
In Europe, at midday, London +1.1%. Paris +1%. Frankfurt +0.7%.
Futures at 6:20, Dow flat. S&P flat. Nasdaq flat. Crude -0.4% to $46.85. Gold +0.1% to $1324.40.
Ten-year Treasury Yield +2 bps to 1.59%

Today's Economic Calendar

5:00 Fed's Harker speech
8:30 GDP Q2
8:30 Corporate Profits
8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
8:30 International trade in goods
8:50 Fed's Lockhart speech
9:45 Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index
10:00 Pending Home Sales
10:00 Fed's Powell speech
10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
2:30 PM Fed's Kashkari speech
3:00 PM Farm Prices
4:30 PM Money Supply
4:30 PM Fed Balance Sheet
5:10 PM Janet Yellen speech