US MARKETS:

-S&P 500 futures up 0.2% to 2,887.00
-Brent Futures down 0.1% to $69.35/bbl
-Gold spot down 0.2% to $1,289.19
-US Dollar Index little changed at 97.27

GLOBAL NEWS:

Pushing when starting. Samsung Electronics will, not surprisingly, record a significant decline in its quarterly results, although more significant than anticipated by the consensus. The South Korean said that its operating profit would drop by about 60% due to the declining memory chip activity. The company had already set the stage last week by announcing that the quarter had been complicated.

Great fatigue. US office equipment distributor Office Depot went public after a warning about its first quarter results. Balance sheet: -23.6% to the bell at USD 2.88. The design office CFRA has pushed the nail in the coffin by stating that the group is threatened by Amazon's development in office equipment.

Mutual consent. Jeff Bezos retains control of three-quarters of his Amazon.com shares after a compromise with his ex-wife in their divorce, and 100% of the voting rights. MacKenzie Bezos announced on Twitter that she planned to leave 75% of their shares to her ex-husband after their separation. However, she will retain a quarter of their joint shares, representing 4% of the Internet sales giant's capital... or $36 billion in value, making Mackenzie the third richest woman in the world.

2,5G. Orange and Vodafone are negotiating a 5G network sharing agreement in Spain, according to the Spanish daily Expansion. The two operators are already working together on their 3G and 4G networks in the country. None of them wanted to comment on the rumors.

Airbus in negative. The combination of orders and cancellations resulted in a net negative balance of 58 aircraft for Airbus as at March 31, for 162 deliveries at the same time. The manufacturer plans to deliver between 880 and 890 aircraft this year. The quarter ended with 62 orders but 120 cancellations, notably from Etihad, which gave up on A350s, and Germania, whose order fell through due to the carrier's bankruptcy.

Job cuts at Nomura. As part of a plan to save $1 billion in operations, Nomura is firing dozens of employees in its struggling global trading operations, Bloomberg reports. It will cull about 150 jobs across the Americas and Europe, the Middle East and Africa on top of reductions in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Collusion. The European Commission has announced that Daimler, BMW and Volkswagen have violated EU rules by agreeing to limit the development of technologies to reduce passenger car emissions, according to the preliminary findings of an investigation.

Bayer still thinks it made the right decision. The supervisory board of Bayer AG fully supports the strategy of its management board, even the acquisition of Monsanto, according to President Werner Wenning, interviewed in the Handelsblatt. Some consider the operation to be disastrous because of Monsanto's on-board liability for glyphosate.

In other news. The ECB requires Deutsche Bank to increase its capital as a condition for a possible acquisition of Commerzbank, Reuters reported. Novartis is suing Amgen in the United States for breach of the agreement to develop and commercialize the Aimovig migraine treatment. Uber is said to have selected Morgan Stanley to stabilize his IPO. The president of Swedbank resigns in his turn, due to the money laundering scandal in Scandinavia.