With Twitter sale news coming fast and furious, Re/code reports that Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) isn't planning to make an offer, and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Disney (NYSE:DIS) are unlikely as well. That may leave the driver's seat open for Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM), whose stock appears to drop the more it talks about buying the messaging service. Sources told Reuters that Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) intends to finalize discussions by Oct. 27, when it announces Q3 results. TWTR -15% premarket.

Economy

The Federal Reserve's governors are less insulated from politics than in the past, according to Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker, who argued that central bankers from outside the capital are important for good policymaking. Meanwhile, Fed Vice Chair Stanley Fischer sees signs of future economic trouble if near-zero rates continue to prove hard to escape and QE remains a "recurrent" fact of life.

British finance minister Philip Hammond is to meet with Wall Street executives today to reassure them over London's position as an international financial hub in the wake of Brexit. He'll say that the U.K. will continue to welcome the best workers from around the world, just 24 hours after the interior minister said the government wanted to "flush out" companies that were not doing enough to hire British staff.

"If we don't say that full access to the single market is linked to full acceptance of freedom of movement, then everyone in Europe will start doing what they want," Germany's Angela Merkel told an industry event in Berlin. She added that negotiations between the EU and Britain won't be easy and said they will need to make clear what access each side has to the other's market. Her comments come ahead of the ECB minutes, which will be released at 7:30 a.m. ET.

The U.K. government has approved a horizontal fracking permit at a Cuadrilla site in Lancashire, northern England, in a ruling that could have far-reaching consequences for the shale gas industry. It means, for the first time, British shale rock will be fracked horizontally, which is expected to yield more gas. A ban on fracking in the U.K. was lifted in 2012.

Russia has further curtailed its cooperation with the U.S. in nuclear energy, suspending a research agreement and terminating one on uranium conversion, two days after the Kremlin shelved a plutonium pact with Washington. "The regular renewal of sanctions against Russia [over Ukraine]... demands the adoption of countermeasures against the U.S. side," the Russian government said on its website.

The 2015 Paris Agreement negotiated by more than 200 countries to cap emissions and curb the global rise in temperatures will go into force on Nov. 4 after the pact reached the threshold necessary to formally take effect. The treaty doesn't legally require countries to curb emissions or take other steps on climate change, but it does require countries to release their targets and report emissions.

Former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres is set to become the next U.N. secretary-general and is expected to be formally recommended for election by the Security Council today. Guterres, who was head of the U.N.'s refugee agency for 10 years until 2015, would replace South Korea's Ban Ki-moon, whose second five-year term ends on December 31.

Stocks

Millions of Americans are heading for higher ground as Hurricane Matthew barrels toward the Florida and South Carolina coasts and the death toll from the monster storm climbed to at least 26. Florida Gov. Rick Scott said 1,500 National Guard members had been activated and he asked President Obama to declare a federal emergency in 26 counties. Related stocks: CB, ALL, PGR, TRV, GNRC, NEE, CCL, RCL, DIS, SEAS

Looking to gain an even more dominant position in retail, Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) is accelerating its investment in e-commerce. The company is on track to double the number of warehouses dedicated to online sales by the end of 2016 and has installed technology that for the first time puts them on par with Amazon's (NASDAQ:AMZN) robot-staffed facilities, according to supply-chain consultants. More highlights will likely be given at Wal-Mart's annual investor conference later today.

U.S. government health plans spent more than $1B on Mylan's (NASDAQ:MYL) EpiPen between 2011 and 2015, but the company is accused of cheating taxpayers by underpaying rebates by hundreds of millions of dollars. Andy Slavitt, Acting Administrator at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, said Mylan wrongly classified the emergency epinephrine product as a generic, when it should have been classified as a brand-name product.

Marking a dramatic retreat from the consumer blood-testing business, Theranos (NASDAQ:THER) is laying off about 340 workers, or about 43% of its full-time staff, as it closes its clinical labs and wellness centers. CEO Elizabeth Holmes will now focus her "undivided attention" on miniLab, which collects small samples of blood and urine and then uploads them to a centralized system for further analysis.

Samsung Electronics hit a record high overnight after the company said it would review restructuring proposals made by Elliott Management. The Korean tech giant also announced it would buy Viv Labs, the firm formed by the creators of Apple's (AAPL) Siri digital assistant. Meanwhile, problems with the Galaxy Note 7 have still not been solved. Passengers on a Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) flight yesterday had to evacuate after a replacement Samsung (OTC:SSNLF) phone caught fire on the plane.

It's not only likely that Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) knew about both a massive data breach and the government monitoring its customers' mail - but also that it told presumptive acquirer Verizon (NYSE:VZ) about neither of them, according to former Yahoo CEO Ross Levinsohn. As for Verizon: "If I were them, just from a business standpoint, I'd probably reserve a bunch of money against the deal or go back to Yahoo and ask for a discount."

Final Nielsen ratings for Tuesday's vice presidential debate took a chunk out of earlier estimates, coming in at an average of 37M viewers across the several channels broadcasting. NBC (NASDAQ:CMCSA) brought the biggest audience, with 7M viewers; Fox News (FOX, FOXA) led cable networks with 6.1M. Other debate broadcasters: CBS, DIS, TWX

In what for now could be called a "mini-Snowden," or "Snowden 2.0," the FBI in recent weeks arrested an NSA contractor in an investigation over whether he stole and disclosed highly classified computer codes developed to hack into the networks of foreign government officials. Like Snowden, the contractor worked for Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE:BAH), whose shares fell almost 4% yesterday on the news.

One of Deutsche Bank's problems might have gone away. BAFIN, the German financial regulator, has found no evidence to date that the lender violated rules on money laundering in Russia. The stakes are still high for Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) as German government officials quietly meet with U.S. regulators in Washington to broker a deal that would reduce the DOJ's $14B settlement.

The commercial space race has taken another major step forward, with Blue Origin (Private:BORGN) successfully testing its crew escape system and booster. Both managed to land a couple of miles from their launchpad in West Texas, as the company makes rapid gains with its New Shepard rocket. The vehicle is expected to take tourists on sub-orbital trips to experience weightlessness and see the planet against the blackness of space.

Expanding its reach beyond motor racing, Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) has entered a multi-year agreement with the NBA to be its official marketing partner in the U.S. and China. "We're reaching a younger demographic, a more diverse demographic, we're reaching a demographic that perhaps is more into social media," said Matt Bergeron, Exxon's vice president of marketing.

The town of Summit, NJ has hired UBER to provide free rides for commuters to and from its train station under a new six-month pilot aimed at solving its downtown parking crisis. Andrew Saltzberg, head of transportation policy at Uber, said the company was eyeing similar arrangements with "another half dozen" towns along the NJ Transit rail line, and that the model could extend to other states in time.

Wednesday's Key Earnings

Monsanto (NYSE:MON) +1.6% after beating expectations.
Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) -2.2% AH on poor Chinese sales.

Today's Markets

In Asia, Japan +0.5% to 16899. Hong Kong +0.7% to 23952. China closed. India -0.4% to 28106.
In Europe, at midday, London -0.2%. Paris -0.3%. Frankfurt -0.2%.
Futures at 6:20, Dow -0.2%. S&P -0.2%. Nasdaq -0.2%. Crude -0.1% to $49.79. Gold flat at $1268.70.
Ten-year Treasury Yield -1 bps to 1.7%

Today's Economic Calendar

Chain Store Sales
7:30 Challenger Job-Cut Report
8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
8:30 Gallup Good Jobs Rate
9:45 Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index
10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
4:30 Money Supply
4:30 Fed Balance Sheet