US MARKETS:

S&P 500 futures up 0.4% to 2,928.00
Brent Futures down 1% to $70.06/bbl
Gold spot down 0.05% to $1,270.07
US Dollar Index up 0.06% to 97.89


GLOBAL NEWS:

Earnings season. American Tower, Dominion Energy, Dish Network, Noble Energy, HSBC, Novo Nordisk, BASF, Equinor, Adidas, Société Générale, OMV AG, Intercontinental Hotels, Proximus, ALD and Air France KLM are among companies reporting earnings today.

Sinclair buys Fox sports. Disney has sold all of the 22 Fox regional sports networks to Sinclair Broadcasting Group. According to the Wall Street Journal, Disney and Sinclair have reached a deal for $10 billion.

Amazon fan. Warren Buffett revealed in an interview with CNBC that Berkshire Hathaway had invested in Amazon.com. "Yeah, I've been a fan, and I've been an idiot for not buying," he said. The details of the position will be known shortly, when the company will communicate the quarterly details of its investments.

New money for Tesla. The group will raise USD 2.3 billion through a combination of a capital increase and a convertible bond issue. Elon Musk has planned to invest $10 million of his personal wealth in fundraising. If successful, this transaction would reassure some investors, who are burdened by Tesla's jagged financial performance. Good news for the group, the size of the offer has been increased today, and Musk should subscribe more securities.

Facecoin. Corroborating recent rumors, Facebook is reportedly building a payment system based on cryptocurrencies. The Wall Street Journal reveals that the group is in discussions with several financial groups and online merchants to refine its ecosystem. Facebook refused to comment, while recalling its long-standing commitment to virtual currencies.

Mezzo-piano. Fiat Chrysler's results were poor in the first quarter, but the annual forecasts are confirmed. A small miss on EBIT but North America as a whole did better than expected, Jefferies sums up, rather positively surprised, even if the presentation conference will provide an opportunity to assess the reliability of forecasts and progress on compliance with European pollutant emissions standards.

Consolidation in the oil and gas sector. The Norwegian small seismic services company Spectrum ASA will be bought by its compatriot TGS, which causes the share price to rise by more than 15% at the meeting on May 3, 2019, to NOK 65. This transaction reduces competition in a sector that has been severely affected by the drying up of oil investment, in which the French company CGG is active.

In other news. Microsoft has launched new cloud services for artificial intelligence and blockchain, ahead of next week's developer conference in Seattle. The Italian fund F2i has submitted a firm offer to buy Persidera from Telecom Italia, Reuters has learned. Slack will hold an investor presentation on May 13 in preparation for its initial public offering, expected in June. SGS acquires the American company Chemical Solutions.