US MARKETS:

-S&P 500 futures up 0.2% to 2,645.50
-Brent futures up 0.6% to $61.68/bbl
-Gold spot up 0.1% to $1,313.36
-US Dollar Index little changed at 95.78

GLOBAL NEWS:

Earnings season. In the United States, the 10 largest companies to publish results are Microsoft, Facebook, Alibaba, Visa, AT&T, Boeing, McDonald's, PayPal, Thermo Fisher and Anthem. In Europe, these are Novartis, Siemens, Santander, Volvo, Telenor, Lonza, Koninklijke KPN, Lundin, Wartsila and Svenska Cellulosa.

Alibaba posts huge revenue increase. Alibaba Group posted a 41 percent rise in quarterly revenues to 117.3 billion yuan ($17.5 billion), after expanding into various fields such as cloud computing and entertainment.

Still going strong. LVMH reassured the market with strong annual results, particularly for the flagship Louis Vuitton, which does not seem to be suffering in China. The owner of the luxury group, Bernard Arnault, took the opportunity yesterday to declare that he had nothing to do with the arrival of the Elliott fund in Pernod Ricard's capital, contrary to rumors that were circulating.

Counter-attack. The Nasdaq will bid higher on Euronext's unsolicited proposal to marry the Oslo Stock Exchange. The Board of Directors of the latter unanimously recommends the rival offer, denominated at NOK 152, against NOK 145 for Euronext.

Soc Gen layoffs? Societe Generale is allegedly preparing a plan to reduce the number of employees in its corporate bank, according to information obtained by Bloomberg. An official announcement could take place next week.

Reassured? Apple's quarterly accounts reassured post-closing despite a mixed outlook: the stock jumped 7% off-session, which should benefit the group's ecosystem, especially in Europe, where its suppliers such as STMicroelectronics, ams and Dialog Semiconductor are based. On the other hand, AMD's results were disappointing, but the outlook is positive (+9% post-session).

In other news. EBay will pay the first dividend in its history. In Italian luxury, Salvatore Ferragamo missed the consensus, while Tod's majority shareholder strengthened. Standard Chartered is fined $40 million in the United States for rigging foreign exchange transactions between 2007 and 2013.