US MARKETS:

S&P 500 futures down 1.9% to 2,893.00
Brent futures down 1.5% to $69.79/bbl
Gold spot up 0.3% to $1,283.07
US Dollar Index up 0.1% to 97.59

GLOBAL NEWS:

Earnings season. Carl Zeiss Meditec, Securitas, Compugroup, American International Group, Sysco and Fastenal are among companies reporting earnings today.

Malfunctions. Boeing acknowledges that its engineers had identified malfunctions in the B737 MAX alert system as early as 2017, but that senior management had not known about them until the Lion Air crash a year earlier. At the time, an inspection did not conclude that this malfunction could "have a negative impact on the safety of the aircraft".

183 years old. At the group's annual general meeting on Saturday, Warren Buffett implicitly dubbed Gregory Abel, 57, and Ajit Jain, 67, for his succession at Berkshire Hathaway's helm. The duo formed by Buffett and Charlie Munger total 183 years, 88 for the first and 95 for the second!

Telenor and Axiata could merge their Asian activities. The Norwegian telecommunications operator Telenor announced on Monday that it is in discussions with Malaysian operator Axiata on a merger of their Asian activities. The two companies are expected to combine their assets into a new company, of which Telenor will own 56.5% and Axiata the remaining 43.5%, Telenor said in a statement.

Diplomacy and Economics. Airbus could sue the German government because its embargo on arms sales to Saudi Arabia prevents the manufacturer from finishing delivering its border security system. Berlin had made this decision after journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder in Istanbul. Approximately €1 billion remains at stake on this contract, worth a total of €3 billion. The industrial company has taken a provision of 300 million euros in its accounts for the non-performance of this contract.

Anadarko wanted. Occidental Petroleum has increased the cash portion of its offer for Anadarko. From now on, 78% of the $38 billion price will be paid in cash compared to 50% previously. The offeror has also withdrawn the condition related to the shareholders' approval of its target. He is engaged in a stock market battle with Chevron, which is also seeking to buy Anadarko. Occidental has planned to sell assets to Total and has received $10 billion in support from Berkshire Hathaway.

What to do with turbines? Siemens is considering several options for its turbine division, including a spin-off for an IPO or a merger with a competitor, according to sources from Reuters Agency. The Supervisory Board could decide tomorrow, on the eve of an investor meeting scheduled for Wednesday.

In other news. Walt Disney has formalized the sale of his interests in 21 regional sports channels to Sinclair Broadcast for $9.6 billion, and also claims the second best performance of all time for "Avengers: Endgame" at the box office: $2.2 billion in revenues in 12 days. The major Italian banks are due to discuss today their possible participation in the rescue of Banca Carige. The Financial Times sees more and more chances that the EU will block the merger between ThyssenKrupp and Tata Steel.