10 things you need to know before European markets open

Good morning! Here's what you need to know.The Bank of Japan tweakedmonetary policy. The central bank voted to increase the amount of exchange traded funds it buys to an annual pace 6 trillion yen from the previous level of 3.3 trillion Yen.Britain will get a nuclear power station. French energy giant EDF's board gave the go-ahead to the building of a controversial nuclear power station in Britain which has faced fierce criticism over its 18 billion price tag.The IMF didn't handle the euro crisis well. An independent probe into the IMF's handling of European bailouts found that it bent its rules and was vulnerable to political pressure as it embarked on the ill-fated 2010 Greece rescue.Samsung is beating Apple in the smartphone war. The South Korean giant delivered 77 million smartphones in the quarter, up 5.5% from a year ago, for a market share of 22.4%, research firm IDC said. That compared with a 15% drop in sales for Apple's iPhones, which accounted for 11.8%.Volkswagen is back on top. Toyota Motor reported a drop in first-half vehicle sales on Thursday following a series of production stoppages, falling behind Volkswagen which became the world's top-selling carmaker in the first six months of 2016 despite its emissions scandal.The fight against drug resistance is intensifying.US and British health officials have created a new alliance with a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars to accelerate the development of new antibiotics and tackle the growing problem of drug resistance.Tesla got a boost. Fidelity's OTC Portfolio, a top investor in Tesla Motors, gave the electric car maker a vote of confidence in its latest commentary, saying it boosted its position in the company during the second quarter.Two huge companies are teaming up on food. Nestle said it is teaming up with Samsung in a research project to explore the potential of nutrition science and digital sensor technologies.Dow Chemical had a good quarter. The biggestUS chemical maker by sales reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit as cost cuts helped boost margins.Dow, which is merging with DuPont, plans to slash costs by $300 million this year.Spain could get a strange coalition. Spain's liberal party Ciudadanos said it was ready to take part in a three-way government with the conservatives and the socialists in a bid to unblock Spain's seven-month political stalemate.Join the conversation about this storyNOW WATCH: We tested an economic theory by trying to buy people's lottery tickets for much more than they paid
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