US MARKETS:

-S&P 500 futures up 0.2% to 2,813.25
-Brent Futures up 0.5% to $67.56/bbl
-Gold spot down 0.4% to $1,316.81
-US Dollar Index up 0.04% to 96.60

GLOBAL NEWS:
 
CBS, Viacom renew merger talks. CBS and Viacom are about to resume merger talks. On Monday, the two media giants cleared a major obstacle, when Viacom settled a contract dispute with AT&T to continue carrying its cable networks.

Memory loss. Samsung issued a warning this morning about its results for the first quarter of 2019, due to a slowdown in demand for displays and a drop in the price of memory. This is the first time that the South Korean has issued an alert of this type, one week before the official communication of its objectives for the period. It allows the group to point out that the consensus is too ambitious.

Tesla's still doing fine. The Californian justice system postpones a second trial against Tesla and its announcements on the production of the Model 3 for a second time. To summarize, the plaintiffs accused Elon Musk and other executives of artificially inflating stock prices by announcing objectives lightly. But a district judge found that the complaint ignored the manufacturer's numerous warnings about production risks.

Xi in France. President Xi Jinping's state visit to France led to the signing of several commercial agreements, notably for Airbus (order for 290 A320neo and 10 A350), Electricité de France (€1 billion development agreement with CEIC for wind farms) and the BNP Paribas, CIC and Eurazeo trio, which are launching a fund to help French companies develop in China.

Boeing under surveillance. The US Department of Transportation has established a special committee to review the Boeing B737 MAX certification process. Meanwhile, the manufacturer proposed an update of the software that could be the cause of the crashes of Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines aircraft. But it is still unclear whether the aircraft will resume flying.

Uber is offering Careem. The rumor that was circulating yesterday is confirmed: Uber is putting $3.1 billion on the table to buy out its rival in the Middle East Careem, including $1.4 billion in cash and $1.7 billion in convertibles. The finalization is expected to take place in early 2020.

Apple is targeting Netflix. Apple's "keynote" issued its verdict last night: as expected, the Californian unveiled an enhanced video content offer, a video game offer, a payment card in partnership with Goldman Sachs and Mastercard and a press kiosk. Interesting but not revolutionary, so the title dropped slightly after the session. Jefferies' comment this morning: "Before the event, the content of Apple's ads was not really clear, but now it's clear that it's about creating a real competitor for Netflix, which will be expensive.

In other news. BlackRock and Varde Partners want to submit competing bids on Banca Carige by the end of April, Reuters learned. Bayer and Johnson & Johnson will pay $775 million to settle more than 25,000 lawsuits involving the anticoagulant Xarelto. Three activist funds are acquiring a stake in Bed Bath & Beyond. McDonald's acquires startup Dynamic Yield. WeWork lost $2 billion last year. The Bitcoin Bitmain Technologies miner lets the firing window for his IPO pass through in Hong Kong. Bang & Olufsen warns. Sika is expanding in Senegal.