US MARKETS:

-S&P 500 futures down 0.1% to 2,775.50
-Brent futures down 0.5% to $66.13/bbl
-Gold spot up 0.3% to $1,345.24
-US Dollar Index little changed to 96.56

GLOBAL NEWS:

Earnings season. CVS Health, Southern Co, Energy Transfer, Analog Devices, Netease, Agilent are among companies reporting earnings in the United States. Glencore, Lloyds, Iberdrola, Fresenius Medical, Wolters Kluwer, Tenaris, TechnipFMC, Worldline, Ageas, Genmab, Scor, Covivio, Air France KLM, Fnac Darty in Europe.

To each his own. Nissan opposes a common president with Renault, the Financial Times reported. The Japanese automaker's special committee on governance will recommend not to appoint Renault's new president, Jean-Dominique Senard, as head of Nissan, in order not to unduly concentrate powers.

Go West. France’s Group Seb is finalizing the acquisition of Wilbur Curtis. The US number two in professional filter coffee machines will strengthen the dedicated division of Seb, which already includes WMF and Schaerer. This company generates approximately $90 million in annual revenues.

The F-21 is coming. Lockheed Martin unveiled a new fighter jet, the F-21, to position itself on the Indian call for tenders. The company announced a device developed especially for the occasion and widely sourced in the country, with the support of Tata Advanced Systems.

Heavy pain for UBS. The bank with the three keys was fined €3.7 billion by the French courts for illegal canvassing and tax fraud laundering. UBS is accused of having encouraged tax evasion by thousands of wealthy French people.

Hard blow. British antitrust does not welcome the news of a potential merger between J Sainsbury and Asda, and applied harsher-than-expected conditions for approval. The whole sector is falling on the stock market: analysts saw consolidation as a way for distributors to ease competitive pressure.

Diamonds don't last forever. The Italian Financial Brigade seized more than €700 million from four major Italian banks (Intesa, Unicredit, Banco BPM, Banca Monte dei Paschi) in a case involving alleged fraudulent diamond sales. The institutions refused to comment. Two specialized brokers are also involved.

After Europe. Ford will stop producing heavy trucks in Latin America. The Brazilian plant in São Bernardo do Campo will be closed this year. Expenses of $460 million will be recorded in the accounts. The car manufacturer had already decided to reduce its activity in Europe.

Back pedaling. Tesla could very quickly launch a rental service for its Model 3, while Elon Musk has twitted that he aims to produce 500,000 vehicles this year... before going back on his statement by stating that the objective is still to produce 400,000 vehicles in 2019, but that the manufacturer's production capacity at the end of the year will be 500,000 vehicles annually.

The salmon industry targeted. Brussels launches an antitrust investigation against European salmon manufacturers. Antitrust authorities suspect an agreement but have not revealed names. However, several companies involved reacted by announcing their collaboration in the investigation, including Mowi, Grieg Seafood and SalMar.

In other news. Danske Bank will close its subsidiary in Estonia after the money laundering scandal. The Chinese video game regulator reportedly requested that publishers temporarily stop filing approval files because of too many pending files. Qualcomm is keeping up the pressure on Apple on intellectual property. In the United States, Wal-Mart reassured the market with its quarterly reports, which allowed the entire sector to perform well.