Image source, Reuters

Can't wait for the US Fed minutes? The Wall Street Journal has put together this listicle, external of things to watch out for this evening:

1. Timing of next rate increase - could it be as soon as September?
2. Brexit - how will the referendum outcome affect the US?
3. Inflation - does the Fed think it's close to the 2% target?
4. Balance of risks - glass half full or empty?
5. Election effects - will the presidential race be a factor in their thinking?

British Airways cabin crew have voted in favour of industrial action to protest against the airline's new performance scheme. They weren't voting on strike action, though, so this won't lead to passenger chaos or flights being grounded.

Image source, Getty Images

Car insurer Admiral finished as the biggest loser on the FTSE 100 after its shares fell nearly 8%. Jasper Lawler from CMC Markets put it down to Admiral's profit growth falling slightly short of estimates. 

The company is also a "victim of low interest rates" since they raise the current value of future claims payments, he added.

Still, Admiral's shares have risen 20% in the last three months. Today’s results - even though profit and turnover grew - were not enough to keep them from falling back, according to Nicholas Hyett at Hargreaves Lansdown.

The FTSE 100 finishes lower for the second day in a row amid heavy falls for car insurer Admiral and other insurance stocks.

The blue chip index dropped 35 points, or 0.5%, to 6,859.15. It's now fallen back nearly 100 points from highs at the beginning of the week, when analysts were predicting it could break through 7,000.

The FTSE 250 of smaller UK firms also fell. It was down 50 points, or 0.3%, to 17,758.68.

Image source, Reuters

Barnes & Noble investors aren't taking well to the news that chief executive Ronald Boire is being ousted less than a year into the job.

The board put out a terse statement, external last night that Mr Boire was "not a good fit" for the company and that it was "in the best interests of all parties for him to leave". 

Shares in Barnes & Noble are down 11%, on course for their worst fall in eight months. The retailer's sales have been falling for the past two years amid intense competition from Amazon.

A sobering thought for anyone planning to pick up euros from the airport before their holidays. Some bureaux de change were offering €0.99 for £1 earlier this week at Stansted and Luton airports, according to foreign currency specialists Caxton FX. 

Image source, Reuters

Deutsche Boerse said the final tally of shareholders, external backing its $29bn merger with the London Stock Exchange was 89% of all shares. 

The deal had already been approved by both LSE and Deutsche Boerse shareholders and is expected to be submitted to EU competition authorities and other regulators in the coming days. 

"We will now focus on achieving the necessary regulatory and anti-trust approvals," Deutsche Boerse boss Carsten Kengeter said.

Image source, Reuters

Beer giant Carlsberg said it lost out to lager rivals in the UK as sales came under pressure in the first six months of the year. 

The Danish company admitted it lost market share, external in Britain, contributing to a 2% fall in beer sales by volume across the group. It posted a 4% fall in group-wide underlying profit to 3.45 billion Danish crowns (£401m). 

Carlsberg announced plans in June to outsource beer distribution in the UK, impacting around 900 jobs.

US stocks edged lower on Wednesday, continuing to back away from the record highs they hit at the start of the week. 

Retailer Target was one of the biggest fallers - down 6% - after a fall in quarterly profits. IT networking giant Cisco, which is rumoured to be looking at major job cuts, is 2% lower.

The Dow Jones is down 0.3% at 18,503. The much broader S&P 500 is 0.2% lower at 2,173, while the tech-based Nasdaq is down 0.3% at 5,212. 

Sterling edged up against the dollar this morning to $1.3058 after figures showed unemployment at a record low.

However, the pound's now drifted back down again to $1.3001, a fall of 0.3% on the day. Against the euro, sterling is 0.2% lower at €1.1540.

Image source, Reuters

Robert De Niro has been given the go-ahead to open a boutique hotel in the heart of Covent Garden in London. The Oscar-winning actor and Capco, his partners on the project, received approval from Westminster council for the plans.

The Wellington Hotel, which is slated to open in 2019, will include a luxury spa, two restaurants, a deli/café and a members’ club.   

De Niro - who repeats the famous line "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse" in Godfather 2 - already backs a boutique hotel in New York.

Image source, Capco

Image source, AP

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg has been giving tips for starting a successful business. He's told Y Combinator, external, which dubs itself a startup accelerator, that the best companies do things that are "trying to drive some kind of social change, even if it's just local in one place".

Once the company's up and running, it needs to keep learning as quickly as possible, he said. "Companies are learning organisms, and you can make decisions that either make it that you learn faster or you learn slower."

"When you do stuff well, you shouldn't have to do big, crazy things. So you want to actually evolve in a way where you're working with your community and making steps and learning." 

Dan Macadam
BBC business reporter

Image source, AP

Thanks very much to Chris and Karen for taking us through the morning. Plenty more to come today, including the minutes from the latest US Federal Reserve meeting, external. Investors will be reading the runes to see if this lady and the rest of the Fed board might raise US interest rates next month. 

Image source, Intel

Intel will start making smartphone chips based on designs by the UK's ARM.

LG has been announced as the first client, external to take advantage of the tie-up.

Intel and ARM are often perceived as being rivals. Intel's x86 chip architecture dominates the PC sector while ARM-based chips are used in most phones and tablets.

But the two companies say they expect the move to be "mutually beneficial".

Bit more on those rumoured job cuts at Cisco. It had more than 70,000 employees as of April 30 and has already cut about 3,200 over the past two years - mostly due to restructuring. 

If it does get rid of 14,000 staff, that would be about 20% of its workforce.

Cisco shares are flat in pre-market trading but are up about 15% this year, compared with a 10.5% rise for New York-listed technology hardware and equipment makers.

The company is worth an impressive $158bn, by the way.

The FTSE 100 is still down 0.3% at 6,875 points with just over three hours of trading remaining.

It's not been a good day for Admiral Group, which has sunk close to 8% following a warning about the impact of Brexit on its business.

Biggest riser is CRH, up almost 3%.

It's been a busy day on the Office For National Statistics' Twitter feed.

If you spotted this tweet and wondered what it meant, read on... 

The ONS's new Economic Experts Working Group - which will meet six times a year - is part of an effort by the statistics body to boost its economics capabilities, including increasing the number of economists it employs. 

Among the group's members is Martin Weale, who has just retired as a member of the Monetary Policy Committee and was director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research until 2010. 

Other members include is Jill Leyland, a former vice-president of the Royal Statistical Society; Thomas Crossley, professor of economics at Essex University and research fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies; Peter Sinclair, professor of economics at Birmingham University; and David Metcalf, emeritus professor at the London School of Economics.

Image source, Getty Images

Audi is introducing technology that will allow its cars to communicate with traffic lights, the German car maker says.

It will tell drivers when lights are due to turn green and when they will not make it before a light turns red.

Audi says the move is about making driving less stressful, rather than safer, it was reported.

However, such a move will require a significant investment to make it viable in the UK, one expert said.

Read more here.