US MARKETS:

-S&P 500 futures little changed at 2,592.75

-Brent Futures up 1% to $62.30/bbl

-Gold spot up 0.5% to $1,293.34

-US Dollar Index down 0.2% to 95.38


GLOBAL NEWS:

Japanese Brexit. Nikkei reports that Hitachi will abandon its British nuclear power plant project, which will result in a charge of 200 to 300 billion yen (about 1.6 to 2.4 billion euros).

Warnings. Several American companies are in turmoil after a series of warnings: Macy's sank by nearly 18% yesterday after a downward revision of its targets. Kohl's Corporation also fell for sales that were too short compared to expectations. American Airlines also warned yesterday.

Finance is tightening its belt. Several financial institutions have announced job cuts, including BlackRock, Nomura, Morgan Stanley, State Street, Santander or AQR. The sector is suffering after a more complicated year 2018 on the markets. Professionals also believe that the growing competition from ETFs is contributing to the depopulation of teams.

Flybe on sale. Virgin Atlantic, in consortium, is expected to buy Flybe, but at a much lower price than current quotations, according to Sky News. The proposal could add value to the perimeter of £20 million compared to the current capitalization of £35.5 million.

Episode XXXVII. While the charges are stacking up in Japan against Nissan's former boss Carlos Ghosn, the internal investigation conducted by Renault - a company which was also headed by M. Ghosn - did not uncover any fraud in the remuneration of its executive committee over the past two years. Carlos Ghosn's wife issued a statement stating that her husband is ill but that the Japanese authorities refuse to say whether he has been taken into care and still prevent him from contacting his family.

Last chance. In a final attempt to get the green light for their marriage, Alstom and Siemens Mobility could accept further transfers in exchange for the European Commission's approval, several sources told Reuters. The theoretical deadline for the antitrust decision is mid-February.

Ubi snobs Steam. Ubisoft will not put 'The Division 2' on Steam but on Epic's new platform. The developer of Fortnite offers on its market a 88/12 revenue sharing compared to the 80/20 of Steam, according to Berenberg. If volumes were not to suffer, this would be an indication of the rise of content providers, the analyst believes.

In other news. Jair Bolsonaro finally approved the merger between Boeing and Embraer. La Compagnie Financière Richemont posted 6% organic growth in the last quarter, in line with the AWP consensus. Credit Suisse plans to buy back at least CHF 1 billion of its own shares in 2019.