Earnings season. Alibaba Group, Pinduoduo, Deere, Fujifilm Holding, SSE Plc, Burberry and Foot Locker are among companies reporting their earnings today.

Persona non grata. The Chinese giant Baidu is reportedly thinking of leaving the Nasdaq in the face of renewed tension between China and the United States. This information was obtained by Reuters, in a context of suspicion towards Chinese companies in general and their accounting system in particular. Recently, American parliamentarians passed a bill that could block the way to the listing of Chinese companies in the United States. This bill is part of a broader context of a hardening of the American position against its great economic rival.

On a diet. SoftBank Group continues its extensive disposal plan by announcing the sale of 5% of its Japanese mobile phone subsidiary SoftBank Corp for JPY310.2 billion (about $2.8 billion). The Japanese giant plans to sell a colossal $40 billion of assets in 12 months, to relieve a balance sheet burdened by some risky investments.

Back to normal. Amazon.com has returned to a "pre-pandemic" configuration, notably by ceasing to favor basic necessities in its deliveries. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company is taking steps to get its business back to normal, including its two Amazon Prime promotional days traditionally held in September. 

B737 MAX in the dark. The test flight of the Boeing 737 Max should not take place before June, according to information obtained by AFP. Another source even said that no timetable has been set for the time being.

Concerns at Nissan. The Kyodo agency understands that Nissan is going to cut some 20,000 jobs worldwide as part of the severe restructuring that is taking place. The group, like its partner Renault, is due to publish the details of its medium-term strategic plan in the very near future.

Giving and taking. Negotiations between the German government and Lufthansa on a €9bn support package would stumble over orders placed with Airbus, according to the Handelsblatt. The government wants the company to confirm its orders, but the company believes that this would put it in jeopardy.

Not bad. Burberry did less well than the other European luxury groups in the first quarter, but is a little better placed than the consensus feared. The stock gained 2% at the start of the session, despite the pressure exerted on the sector by the return of nervousness in Hong Kong.

Fail. EasyJet's founder and main shareholder, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, failed in his putsch to bring down the carrier's management.

Alphabet rejected. The consulting firm ISS recommends to the shareholders of Google's parent company to reject the compensation proposed to the company's executives at the annual general meeting in June.

Earnings reports. NVIDIA has reported strong earnings growth and solid guidance, but the stock has been stagnating outside of the trading session. Stadler Rail will not meet its 2020 targets and needs to find a new CEO after Thomas Ahlburg's decision to step down for strategic differences. Hewlett Packard Enterprise is disappointed with its results, with the stock losing more than 5 percent outside the session. Alibaba reported better-than-expected sales for the quarter ended March 31. Deere reported results that were down sharply but slightly better than expected. Foot Locker posted a heavy loss and suspended its quarterly dividend.

Roche strengthens. The laboratory will acquire Stratos Genomics, a company specializing in DNA sequencing. The terms of the takeover of the small company based in Seattle, USA, were not communicated by Roche.

In other news. Jean-François van Boxmeer, the CEO of Heineken, will take over the chairmanship of Vodafone on November 3 from Gerard Kleisterlee. The US government is providing $1.2 billion in funding to AstraZeneca for its research into a vaccine against Covid-19. SelectQuote, the largest IPO in the United States since February, surged 36% on its first day of listing. Xiaomi takes 27.4% of Zimi for $102.8 million. Roche and Abbott will provide 10 million serological tests to Great Britain, for the health personnel, the British government has announced.