* Saudi energy minister sees market balanced by end of Q1 (Updates prices, market activity, adds commentary; changes byline, dateline, previous LONDON)

* Indexes up: Dow 0.72 pct, S&P 0.72 pct, Nasdaq 0.61 pct (Changes comment, updates prices)

The following are mergers under review by the European Commission and a brief guide to the EU merger process:

* Belgian bonds underperform after PM steps down (Updates pricing, adds Conte comments)

The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates on Wednesday, but may cut the number of hikes it anticipates next year and signal an earlier end to its monetary tightening in the face of financial market volatility and rising recession fears.

Most banking, insurance and other financial firms in Britain would be cut off from the European Union if there is a no-deal Brexit, the bloc's executive body said on Wednesday.

Turnover in emerging market debt fell more than 7 percent in the third quarter of 2018 compared with the same period a year earlier, a report released on Wednesday showed.

The U.S. Congress began advancing legislation on Wednesday to fund several federal agencies through Feb. 8 to avert a partial government shutdown, but without including money for a U.S.-Mexico border wall that President Donald Trump demanded.

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz on Wednesday welcomed an agreement reached between Italy and the European Commission to resolve their lingering dispute over Rome's budget plans.

The dollar fell across the board on Wednesday, as investors bet the Federal Reserve would signal a slower pace of interest rate hikes