U.S. MARKETS:

S&P 500 futures up 0.1% to 2,926.75
Brent futures up 0.3% to $59.89/bbl
Gold spot up 0.4% to $1,501.50
U.S. Dollar Index little changed at 98.36

GLOBAL NEWS:

Earnings season: Home Depot, Medtronic, and TJX are among companies reporting earnings today.

Saudi Aramco close to second IPO. Saudi Aramco chose Lazard and Moelis to advise on its second IPO attempt. This would be the largest IPO in history, as it could raise some $100 billion. Saudi Arabia hopes to attract more foreign investment and reduce its dependence on oil. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed ben Salman announced in 2016 the plan to sell around 5% of Saudi Aramco on the market - via a listing both in Saudi Arabia and internationally. The process was suspended in 2018 after Saudi Aramco announced its intention to acquire 70% of the capital of the petrochemical group Saudi Basic Industries (Sabic) from the Saudi sovereign fund PIF.

Baidu profits tumble, but sales are better than expected. The Chinese search engine Baidu recorded a 62% drop in its profit in the second quarter, but its sales rose slightly - exceeding analysts' forecasts - thanks to an increase in traffic to its sites and the number of mobile users. These figures boosted Baidu's share price in post trading by nearly 10%.

Apple spending billions on streaming content. The Californian group is preparing to enter the highly competitive video streaming sector in November with an offer called Apple TV+. According to the Financial Times, Apple will spend more than $6 billion on producing content.

Elanco purchases Bayer's animal-health unit for $7.6 billion. Bayer sold its animal health business to US group Elanco, it announced today. Some $5.3 billion was delivered in cash for the contract, subject to customary purchase price adjustments and $2.3 billion in Elanco shares based on the volume weighted average price. The sale is expected to be completed by mid-June 2020.

Casino sales an extra 2 billion assets in France. The French distributor's board of directors has approved a second phase of its debt reduction program to be implemented by mid-2021.