US MARKETS:

-S&P 500 futures little changed at 2,912.00
-Brent futures down 0.7% to $71.04/bbl
-Gold spot down 0.3% to $1,286.95
-US Dollar Index down 0.2% to 96.80

GLOBAL NEWS:

Earnings season. The American banking trio Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Charles Schwab, along with Vivendi, Galp Energia and ICG Enterprise.

A MAX of patience. American Airlines will cancel 115 flights per day (1.5% of its flights) on its summer program due to the flight ban on the B737 MAX. Tests on the new software that equips the single aisle will continue for several more weeks.

On break. Telecom Italia has asked the Italian regulator to delay the examination of the proposed split into two entities because discussions are ongoing on a possible merger with Open Fiber assets, according to Reuters. TI's future scope is one of the many stumbling blocks between its shareholders Vivendi and Elliott.

AB Inbev in Asia. Anheuser-Busch InBev has strengthened Citigroup and Bank of America Merrill Lynch's pool of banks responsible for preparing the IPO of its Asia-Pacific division. The operation could raise up to $5 billion in Hong Kong.

Winterkorn charged. Former general manager of Volkswagen. Martin Winterkorn is charged with fraud by the German courts in connection with the "dieselgate".

Merger discussed. Mediaset and ProSiebenSat.1 denied rumors of merger discussions. Earlier, Il Sole 24 Ore had mentioned negotiations between the two media specializing in television and pay-TV.

KBA on Daimler. The German automotive policeman has opened an investigation to determine whether Daimler has equipped Mercedes SUVs with software designed to mislead emission tests, according to the Bild am Sonntag. KBA is interested in 60,000 GLK 220 CDIs produced between 2012 and 2015. "We are fully cooperating with KBA and we are examining the facts," the manufacturer confirmed.

Publicis relies on data. It was not until the weekend that the rumor materialized: Publicis signed an agreement to buy the American company Epsilon from Alliance Data Systems for $4.4 billion in cash. The French agency took the opportunity to reveal its performance in the first quarter of 2019, which is not particularly remarkable, as activity contracted by 1.8%. This is the largest acquisition in the history of the French group.

Ghosn remains in prison. The Japanese Supreme Court this morning dismissed Carlos Ghosn's (Nissan) appeal against the extension of his detention.

Rafale scandal in India. French newspaper Le Monde revealed on Saturday that an Indian businessman, Anil Ambani (Reliance), close to Prime Minister Modi, received in 2015 a write-off of more than 140 million euros in tax debts by France, when Paris was negotiating the sale of the Rafale warplane of Dassault Aviation, which accentuates the political unease surrounding this case in India. The French Ambassador to India stated that an international agreement had been reached between the French authorities and Reliance "in strict compliance with the legislative and regulatory framework governing this common practice of the tax administration".

In other news. The CEO of Netflix will leave the Facebook board. Artisan Partner takes a big position in ABB. Baloise buys Fidea. Moody's takes control of Vigeo.