US MARKETS:

-S&P 500 futures up 0.9% to 2,762.00
-Brent Futures down 0.4% to $72.59/bbl
-Gold spot up 0.1% to $1,234.99
-U.S. Dollar Index down 0.2% to 96.10

GLOBAL NEWS:

Too much stress. The EBA will publish today the results of the latest bank stress tests, covering 48 banks in the euro area. The markets will take a close look at the performance of Italian banks. 

Earnings season. Exxon Mobil, Chevron and AbbVie are just a few of the companies set to report earnings.

Data. On the macro side, non-farm payrolls and trade balance are among upcoming data points

Rio is no longer responding. Engie is taking his time in the TAG case, the pipeline network he has to buy from Petrobras, with discussions that are not expected to end until the end of the winter, according to the local subsidiary's manager.

Confirmation for VietJet. The Vietnamese carrier ordered 50 A321neo from Airbus, as expected.

Express added value. Wendel sold Nippon Oil Pump to Citic for €85 million, representing an IRR of 29% since the investment in 2013 and 18% higher than the amount recorded in the half-yearly balance sheet.

Apple disappoints. Apple has published record results, but its forecasts are considered disappointing, causing a decline in share prices. The upper bound of the target range corresponds to the level of consensus before publication. Tim Cook explained that some emerging markets and the exchange rate will weigh heavily.

On the results side. Kraft Heinz's quarterly results disappoint, Starbucks' reassures. Spotify punished on the stock market for choosing growth over margins.

IAG confident. Somewhat against the trend in the sector, the parent company of British Ariways and Iberia raised its profitability expectations for the medium term.

Discord at Dell's. Carl Icahn, who owns 9.3% of Dell, is suing the group for the capital operation organised on the tracking shares. Some other funds are on the same wavelength as the activist.

Round trip. Twenty-First Century Fox is openly interested in buying the sports channels it sold as part of the mega-operation with Walt Disney. Antitrust has requested the sale of this perimeter, which could then be returned to the fold.

Not OK Google. Several thousand Alphabet (Google) employees have demonstrated against sexist or racist behaviour within the company on three continents. This follows the NYT's revelations that the group had sought to ignore embarrassing cases.

Barclays/Rothschild. Nigel Higgins (vice-president of Rothschild & Co) will head Barclays in May, replacing John McFarlane, the British bank said. Higgins spent 36 years at Rothschild.

JPM does not look at DB. JP Morgan's boss reiterated in the columns of the Handelsblatt that his group is not interested in Deutsche Bank. "If you buy a company just to consolidate it, it's almost impossible without killing the patient," Dimon said.