Earnings season. Roche Holding, Intel, AT&T, Unilever, Danaher, Air Products, Dassault Systèmes, Publicis, Plastic Omnium, Daimler, Relx, Dow Inc, Sika, STMicroelectronics, Worldline and Repsol are among companies reporting their results today.

Daimler: the drop in sales in the second quarter to €30.2 billion resulted in a net loss of €2 billion. The German manufacturer believes it is seeing the first signs of recovery, with high demand for its high-end products and its electric vehicles. This will not prevent a sharp contraction in sales this year, although cash flow and operating profit are likely to be in the green in 2020.

Twitter: It reported the strongest year-on-year growth in the number of users able to view ads, allowing the messaging network to jump 6% ahead of the stock market, despite a sharper than expected drop in advertising revenues. The group also said Wednesday that hackers who broke into its systems last week likely accessed direct messages (DMs) from 36 accounts, including one belonging to an elected official in the Netherlands.

Microsoft: loses 2% after higher than expected results but the forecast is considered a little timid.

Repsol: the Spanish oil group recorded a depreciation of $1.29bn in its quarterly accounts, to take account of a less favorable price environment.

Roche: the laboratory recorded a decline in its half-yearly profits, penalized by the coronavirus. Management is targeting full year sales growth in the low to mid-single-digit range at constant exchange rates.

Sika recorded a contraction in its results in the first half of the year and confirms its medium-term projections.

Swiss Re: posted a net loss of $1bn in the first half of the year as a result of impairments related to coronavirus.

Tesla: gains 4% post-season after its positive quarterly results, which could enable the manufacturer to integrate the S&P500.

Unilever: the group managed to limit its organic decline to 0.3% in the second quarter, whereas the market feared a decline of around 3.9%. Unilever also announced that it will retain its tea business in India and Indonesia and its ready-to-drink business, but that the rest of the scope will be included in a new entity.

Whirlpool: The North American manufacturer of household appliances raised its annual targets after a clear upturn in June.

In other news. The former CEO of Wirecard and two directors arrested for fraud in Germany, on allegations of knowledge of embezzlement since 2015. The United States awards a $1.9 billion contract to Pfizer and BioNTech for a potential Covid-19 vaccine. Nvidia is reportedly studying the purchase of ARM from Softbank, according to Bloomberg. Cellnex launches a capital increase of €4bn at €39.45 per share to finance its development. Recent Twitter hackers have obtained private messages from the accounts of 36 personalities. Bombardier obtains a $1bn credit line from HPS, time to sell its railway assets. Slack files a complaint against Microsoft with the European antitrust authorities. France in turn distances itself from Huawei for 5G.