US MARKETS:

S&P 500 futures down 0.2% to 2,643.25

Brent futures down 1.2% to $61.84/bbl

Gold spot down 0.5% to $1,223.0

U.S. Dollar Index down 0.04% to 96.67


GLOBAL NEWS:

Trouble at Foxconn. Apple Supplier Foxconn is accelerating job cuts as iPhone demand wanes. It ains to cut up to 100,000 personnel by the end of this year.

Renault-Nissan. France and Japan are working to put out the Ghosn fire by ensuring that they believe in collaboration between Renault and Nissan, a message shared by the new Japanese CEO. Thierry Bolloré, head of Renault, believes that it is "perfectly" prepared to face the storm caused by the Ghosn scandal. Behind the scenes, conspiracy theories are multiplying.

Saint-Gobain is streamlining its operations in China. The group sold part of its pipeline business in China for €200 million. Saint-Gobain has launched a plan to rationalize and improve the profitability of this division.

Battle in Abu Dhabi? OMV and ENI are among the contenders for a 40% stake in the ADNOC refinery in Abu Dhabi, which could be worth up to $8 billion, Bloomberg learned.

Locked-up. Three families of Barry Callebaut shareholders have signed a lock-up clause, which only runs until March 15, 2019, after they recently sold 2.7% of the capital.

Epilogue. Samsung will compensate its workers employed in semiconductor plants that have developed cancers. The procedure took many years.

Persona non grata. The United States has asked its allies, including Europe and Japan, to shun Huawei's telecom equipment, according to the WSJ, which weighs on Chinese stock markets today.

New source. BP has brought a new field into production in the North Sea after one of the largest investments in the area in a long time. The objective is to pump 120,000 barrels per day from this field off the Shetlands, in which ConocoPhilips, Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell also have interests.

In other news. Kuehne und Nagel is looking for a big acquisition. Novartis to sell Luxturna, a drug to treat a rare retinal disease, in Europe.