U.S. MARKETS:

S&P 500 futures up 0.5% to 3,089.50

Brent futures up 1.1% to $62.43/bbl

Gold spot down 0.4% to $1,485.33

US Dollar Index down 0.1% to 97.86

 

GLOBAL NEWS:

ArcelorMittal under pressure. The tone is rising in Italy between the political authorities and ArcelorMittal, which has decided to throw in the towel in the Ilva case, after having lost the State's guarantee on environmental liabilities: false, replied President Conte, who believes that the steelmaker was preparing an "unacceptable" social plan and who considers the group's withdrawal illegal. He also said he was open to negotiation.

Lafarge in Syria. The Paris Court of Appeal overturned LafargeHolcim's indictment for "complicity in crimes against humanity".  On the other hand, the investigating chamber upheld the cement company's indictments for "terrorist financing", "violation of an embargo" and "endangering the lives" of former employees. The facts concern Lafarge's actions in Syria around the Jalabiya site.

Euronext is looking at Madrid. Bloomberg says Euronext is considering an offer on the Madrid Stock Exchange (Bolsas y Mercados Espanoles, or BME), which is climbing on the market. A consolidation that has been mentioned many times.

A little extension cord? Not surprisingly, Tiffany has asked LVMH to increase its repurchase proposal, currently at USD 120, to USD 140 per share, while analysts were considering around USD 130. The main lesson of this rumor is that the American jeweler seems ready to be bought back.

Marriage of reason. HP Inc. confirmed receipt of an offer to buy Xerox Holdings, currently under review, after the Wall Street Journal revealed a proposal at USD 23 per share, in cash and securities. Indeed, HP weighs more than 3.5 times as much as Xerox on the stock market (29 billion dollars vs. 8 billion dollars). HP suggested that the discussions have been going on for some time now.

Corporate results review. Toyota Motor exceeds profit forecasts. Qualcomm's stock is progressing after the session, in the wake of its quarterly reports, such as Fox Corp. Solvay has reduced its forecasts. Commerzbank under consensus, Unicredit above. Deutsche Telekom raises its forecasts but reduces its dividend, while Siemens does better than expected but reports slowdowns in its short-cycle activities. Rheinmetall is reducing its forecasts.

In other news. Unicredit has launched the sale of its stake of approximately 8.4% in Mediobanca to institutional investors. The American courts have implicated two former Twitter employees in a spy case for Saudi Arabia. After Facebook and Twitter, whose positions differ on the handling of political ads, Google is currently considering how to proceed with this type of ad. Softbank is not the only group to suffer from investments: the Chinese giant Baidu is in loss over the past quarter after a large depreciation of its investment in Trip.com. Lufthansa faces a massive strike.