Opening Bell: Here's what will drive the market today

In the US, stocks ended lower, with the S&P 500 snapping a four-day streak of record highs, following weakness in global equities and a mixed bag of earnings reports. The benchmark treasury yields fell to their lowest in three months after the weaker jobs data reinforced expectations that the fed is unlikely to taper anytime soon. The CBOE volatility index climbed to close above 13.

In Europe, shares closed lower, hit by plans for new, tougher stress tests for euro zone banks from the European Central Bank (ECB).

Meanwhile, minutes from the Bank of England's October meeting showed that members voted unanimously to keep interest rates unchanged at 0.5 percent. The central bank also kept its quantitative easing programme unchanged at 375 billion pounds. That outcome was expected by the markets.

In Asia, Asian stocks are cautious before china PMI data today. Last month, the final HSBC PMI reading came in at 50.2 - significantly below the flash estimate of 51.2. Japan and China were under some pressure on Wednesday.

There are reports that top Chinese lenders including the commercial bank of China wrote off about USD 3.7 billion in bad debt for the first six months of the year, higher than last year.  A spike in short-term Chinese money rates weighed on sentiment, after the central bank refused to inject cash into markets for a second straight session.

In commodities, US oil prices tumble after government data showed a surprisingly large increase in crude supplies.

From precious metals space; gold prices lower on profit taking after 4-week high.

Back home, markets had a volatile session along with profit taking. The Nifty closed below the 6200 mark at 6178.35, down 24.45 points. The Sensex had a 275-points intraday fall, closing at 20767.88; 97 points below its previous close. 

On the earnings front, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Biocon, and Idea Cellular will announce their numbers today. Jet Airways had a howler compared to the previous quarter. The airline's losses went up by around two and a half times during the second quarter.