US MARKETS:

S&P 500 futures up 0.2% to 2,996.00

Brent futures little changed at $59.39/bbl

Gold spot down 0.3% to $1,485.85

US Dollar Index down 0.5% to 97.56

 

GLOBAL NEWS:

Earnings season. Nestlé, Unilever, BHP Group, Union Pacific, Pernod Ricard, Vivendi, Ericsson, Accor, Rentokil, Tele2, Icade and Casino are among companies reporting earnings today…

Review of US results. Netflix shines after the US session in the wake of higher than expected revenues thanks to international operations and less unfavorable than expected subscriber growth, unlike International Business Machines, whose results are disappointing. Alcoa will sell $1 billion in assets to face difficult market conditions.

Huawei effect? Telecom equipment manufacturer Ericsson generated a higher than expected gross margin in the third quarter and raised its 2020 revenue forecast.

Nestlé results. With organic growth of 3.7%, Nestlé is in line with consensus expectations for the first nine months of 2019, despite gross revenues slightly below expectations. The annual forecasts are confirmed. The Swiss giant has planned to return CHF 20 billion to its shareholders in the form of share buybacks between 2020 and 2022.

A hard fight. General Motors and the UAW union reached an agreement in principle after a five-week strike in the United States. This provisional agreement should make it possible to resume work in the group's factories. It must be ratified by a majority of unionized employees.

50 billion dollars in compensation? Yet another rumor in the US opiates case: Johnson & Johnson would be willing to pay $4 billion to close the case, the Wall Street Journal reported. In total, manufacturers and distributors in the sector would be willing to pay up to $50 billion, including $22 billion in cash and $28 billion in medicines and services. In addition to J&J, McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and Teva are among the companies involved.

In other news. Lonza signs a subcontract with Mesoblast. Solvay will increase Tecnoflon's production capacity by 30%. Domino's Pizza will abandon its international subsidiaries to focus on the United Kingdom.