US MARKETS:

S&P 500 futures up 0.7% to 2,912.50
Brent futures up 1% to $59.21/bbl
Gold spot down 0.8% to $1,501.21
US Dollar Index little changed at 98.20

GLOBAL NEWS:

Tech giants fight back French tax. Amazon, Facebook, Google and the other Internet giants, targeted by the digital tax adopted by France, are meeting on Monday in Washington to plead their case with the US government. They accuse it of being unfair and discriminatory. Adopted in early July, it taxes revenues (3%) instead of income, in order to counter tax evasion. Donald Trump has already promised retaliation and threatened to tax French products, starting with wine. According to CNBC, this potential tax could be implemented as early as August 26. Amazon has already announced that it will pass on the cost to partner companies that sell their products on Amazon in France.

Global dividends reach new records. Some $513.8 billion was paid by companies to their shareholders as a dividend during the second quarter, a record, according to a study by Janus Henderson Investors Fund Management Company (JHI). However, there are some disparities across regions. Europe (excluding the United Kingdom) saw dividends fall by 5.3% to USD 169.5 billion, mainly due to the weakness of the euro against the dollar. In the US, dividends rose 4.4% to $132.9 billion.

Norwegian sells its banking assets. Norwegian, the low-cost airline, has just announced the sale of its banking assets to Nordic financial groups for €222 million. The company is divesting its 17.47% stake in Norwegian Finans Holding (Nofi) in order to strengthen its core business in air transport and focus on the transition from growth to profitability.

Low number of IPOs in Europe. According to Bloomberg, eighty-four companies have listed in Europe this year, the fewest in a decade. By deal value, it's the lowest since 2013.