Earnings season. Coca-Cola, Novartis, BHP Group, Texas Instruments, Philip Morris, Lockheed Martin, Intuitive Surgical, UBS Group, Givaudan and Snap are among companies reporting their earnings today.

Job cuts. LinkedIn announced it is cutting approximately 960 jobs, or 6% of its global workforce, due to the significant impact of the coronavirus pandemic on its recruitment products.

Threat to Ericsson and Nokia. According to the Wall Street Journal, China plans retaliatory measures against Ericsson and Nokia if Europe penalizes Huawei. Last week, London announced the exclusion of Chinese equipment from its 5G network. Other European countries are still hesitating. The European Union has not taken any coercive measures, but has provided security standards to be respected. According to the US financial publication, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce could introduce export controls to prevent the two Scandinavian players from shipping products made in China to other markets.

Brief summary of quarterly results:

Continental suffered a nearly 40% drop in sales in the second quarter, resulting in a heavy loss, and cannot provide a quantified 2020 forecast.

International Business Machines earned more than 4% off-peak after quarterly results were down but higher than expected.

Novartis narrowly missed consensus in the second quarter and reduced its full-year sales guidance to the lower end of its original range.

Logitech raises guidance after a strong quarter.

Givaudan claims 4% organic growth in the first half year.

BHP Group met its production targets despite the impact of the coronavirus. 

UBS Group reached a compromise with the US authorities in the municipal debt litigation in exchange for a $10 million payment. At the same time, the Swiss bank reported an 11% decline in net profit in the second quarter, but did significantly better than the consensus forecast.

Lindt reported sharply lower earnings in the first half of the year.

Georg Fischer, who was penalised by the coronavirus, is expecting results close to those of the first half of the year for the second half, but is exceeding expectations.

Kuehne + Nagel recorded a decline in its half-year results, but exceeded expectations. This allows the company to reconsider its decision to suspend its dividend.

In other news. Microsoft and Amazon.com, doped up with analysis recommendations, set the Nasdaq on fire yesterday. Adevinta bought the assets of eBay in the classifieds for $9.2 billion. The world's largest operator of gambling casinos was born, with the completion of the merger between Eldorado Resorts and Caesars Entertainment. Bayer failed to convince a Californian court of appeal to overturn a verdict in favor of a gardener who claimed that Roundup was the cause of his cancer.