US MARKETS:

S&P 500 futures up 0.3% to 2,883.50
Brent futures down 0.2% to $63.19/bbl
Gold spot down 0.9% to $1,328.61
US Dollar Index up 0.3% to 96.87

GLOBAL NEWS:

The big mess. The tone is once again rising between Renault and Nissan: the French company is threatening to block the reform of Japanese governance for lack of better representation on the committees of the board of directors of a company in which it owns 43% of the capital, reports the Financial Times. Nissan confirmed this morning that Renault said that its representatives would abstain from voting on the formation of these committees. The French finance Ministry confirmed that the State is ready, in the long term, to reduce its share in Renault to promote a better integration of the two main members of the Alliance. In addition, Reuters understands that the Fiat Chrysler and Renault are seeking to resume their discussions, which could involve... a reduction in Renault's share of Nissan, to win the Japanese's support for the project. Two slightly contradictory pieces of information. And a hell of a mess.

Birth of a giant. Raytheon will marry United Technologies' aeronautics business to create a new giant in the sector with a capitalization of more than $100 billion. A "merger between equals", write the two groups in their banns publication, which will involve an exchange of shares but will confer 57% of the capital to UTI shareholders and 47% to those of Raytheon (a little less equal, therefore). The new entity will be called Raytheon Technologies and will generate $74 billion in annual revenues. The merger is expected to take place in the first half of 2020. By that date, UTI will have separated from Otis (elevators) and Carrier (air conditioning), which will be flying on their own. This new colossus of the sector is active in a wide spectrum of the aeronautics, electronics and defense industries, a bit like a giant Safran Thales.

Kraft Heinz, at last. The American company finally published his 2018 results, after having to fight to erase accounting errors that have led to a severe sanction in recent months for the stock market share. The group is on the road to standardization, said its president. The adjustments made are in line with the announcements of May 6. The Kraft Heinz has made commitments to fundamentally improve its practices.

Merger in the software industry. Salesforce will buy Tableau through a share exchange, for a valuation of $15.7 billion based on recent prices. The operation is portrayed as the union of the world leader in CRM and the world's leading analytical platform.

And another one in the rental of equipment. The French company Loxam, Europe's leading professional equipment rental company and the fifth largest player in the world, will take a step forward with the acquisition of Finnish company Ramirent, whose activities are concentrated in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. The French company offers EUR 9 per share, representing an enterprise value of EUR 970 million. The offer was validated by Ramirent's Board of Directors.

Unveiled threats. China has summoned bosses of major technology companies, such as Microsoft, Dell and Samsung, to warn them that retaliatory measures could be adopted if Washington persists in its ban on Huawei, according to the New York Times. In parallel, the White House has asked Congress for a delay to ban Chinese equipment completely, because the implementation is more complicated than expected, especially for American corporate customers. This delay could reach... 2 years! Deglobalization is sometimes difficult to implement. 

Roche will still wait. The deadline for Roche's takeover bid for Spark Therapeutics has again been postponed to July 31, this time after a new request for postponement from the US Trade Commission (FCA), based on an antitrust investigation. The British CMA is also interested in the transaction.

In other news. American Airlines is postponing the potential online return of Boeing's B737 MAX from August 19 to September 3. Greenpeace is blocking the departure of a BP Plc platform from Scotland to the North Sea. Aurora has signed an agreement with Fiat Chrysler to develop autonomous vehicle platforms. Microsoft will test a new video game streaming service from October, the group announced on Sunday, a few days after an identical initiative from Google. Fosun is in pole position to buy Thomas Cook's tour operator assets, according to Sky News. Uber separates from two senior executives.