Earnings season. Honeywell, Bank of New York Mellon, Sandvik, Schlumberger, Elisa, and Getinge are among companies reporting their earnings today.

A few results:

  • Ford saw its sales in China jump 25.4% to 164,352 units in the third quarter of 2020, thanks to the launch of new vehicles and the rebound in post-Covid-19 demand.
  • LVMH recorded a 7% contraction in sales in Q3, bringing the change to -21% over 9 months. The market is hailing what is considered a solid performance, despite the decline.
  • Daimler reported better than expected third quarter results, thanks to a faster than expected recovery in the automotive market.
  • AB Volvo is doing better than expected on operations but not on revenues.
  • Hewlett Packard Enterprise targets higher than expected results in 2021.
  • Rio Tinto recorded a 4.6% decline in iron ore shipments in the third quarter due to planned maintenance at its main Pilbara assets in Australia.

Pfizer’s vaccine. The pharmaceutical company Pfizer has indicated that it may apply for emergency licensing of its Coronavirus vaccine candidate in the third week of November. The vaccine is being developed in collaboration with the German group BioNTech.

Recovery. The European automotive market returned to growth in September, a first since the beginning of the year. New car registrations rose 1.1% last month, ACEA reported, in European Union countries, the United Kingdom and European Free Trade Association member states (Iceland, Norway and Switzerland). That is 1,300,048 units. Performances were contrasted by country, with an increase of 8.4% in Germany and 9.5% in Italy, but a decrease of 13.5% in Spain and 3% in France.

Nestlé's American waters on sale. Reuters has learned that Nestlé has launched the sale of its American mineral waters, which could bring in up to $5 billion. The Pure Life and Poland Spring brands are notably concerned. Morgan Stanley has been asked to find a buyer. Private equity funds, Apollo is mentioned, are said to be in the running.

This is still a controversial issue. Gilead's recovery does not shorten the recovery time for coronavirus patients, says WHO. The organization has published data that has yet to be analyzed. Gilead believes that the reported data are not consistent with its own findings. Gilead received emergency approval from the FDA on May 1 for the treatment of coronavirus.

In other news. The shareholders of Varian accepted the acquisition by Siemens Healthineers. IG Metall wants a partial nationalization of ThyssenKrupp, which is facing major difficulties. Twitter is aware that its users are experiencing difficulties in publishing messages and using the platform and is working to resolve the problem. The vice-president of Citigroup, Ray McGuire, will leave his position to run for mayor of New York according to the New York Times. Blackstone will sell BioMed Realty for $14.6 billion. Ant Group raises its IPO valuation to $280 billion. Hon Hai Precision (Foxconn) wants to become a major supplier of electric vehicles within 5 years.