Earnings season. United Health, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, US Bancorp, Charles Schwab in the US, ASML, TomTom, Fraport, Sixt, Virbac in Europe are among companies posting their results today.

No miracle. JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo yesterday posted sharply declining results, with no great surprise. The two institutions, number one and number four in the United States, have made huge provisions to deal with looming defaults on loan repayments. It is these provisions that have led to the decline in their net results. You don't need to be particularly farsighted to anticipate results under pressure in the financial sector in the coming months. Bank of America announced a lower than expected quarterly profit (-48.5%), Goldman Sachs saw its profits fall by the same proportion and Citigroup by 46%.

Big rebound. Tesla registrations in China more than quadrupled in March to 12,709 from 2,314 a month earlier, according to data from the consulting firm LMC Automotive.

No dividend at Adidas. Adidas is suspending its dividend after obtaining €3 billion in bank financing guaranteed by the German state. The funds are being channelled through the state-owned bank KfW, which will contribute €2.4bn, with the balance being provided by an international banking consortium. The credit line has been granted at market conditions. The group has been hit hard by the crisis, due to the closure of retail outlets. Management says that Adidas has stopped its share buyback program and will not pay short and long term bonuses for the year 2020, a year for which targets have been abandoned.

Bankruptcies in sight. Frontier Communications has filed for protection under the U.S. Bankruptcy Act. J. C. Penney Company may also seek Chapter 11 protection.

Amazon on a break in France. Amazon.com plans to suspend operations in its warehouses in France at least until April 20, while it carries out a professional risk assessment required by the French justice system, according to an internal document that Reuters has been able to consult.

Zoom out. Standard Chartered recommends that its teams do not use Zoom Video or Hangout (Google) for security reasons. The British bank made this clear in a document that was consulted by Reuters. The experts indicate that the two services do not offer the adequate level of encryption of conversations compared to their competitors such as Webex (Cisco) or Teams (Microsoft).

The airline industry is cracking all over the place. IATA expects passenger air traffic revenues to fall by 55% in 2020, $314 billion. The Treasury and a dozen American airlines (including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines) have agreed on a rescue plan to preserve a sector that employs 750,000 people in the country. Wizz Air is cutting 1,000 jobs, or 19% of its workforce. Boeing records 150 cancellations for its B737 MAX during the month of March. Unfortunately, the negative news flow is not over for the industry.

In other news. Procter & Gamble increases its quarterly dividend by 6%. "The demand outlook is currently unchanged and we have not encountered any postponements or cancellations this year", despite the difficult circumstances, announces ASML, an excellent barometer of the semiconductor industry. Fujifilm will significantly increase its production of Avigan if the treatment produces results against Covid-19.