Wall Street Journal reports SoftBank is in preliminary talks to acquire Allied Universal.

China has approved registration for its first batch of 18 active ETFs; the products have entered issuance preparation and will begin fundraising imminently. The Shanghai Stock Exchange approved nine of the funds; managers include domestic and foreign, and leading and mid-to-large institutions. Approved strategies emphasize low turnover, high diversification and operational simplicity, focusing on large-cap balanced, large-cap growth and dividend/value exposures to support diversified asset allocation. Managers say issuance and listing preparations are complete.

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said Russia is not interested in energy price volatility.