European and US futures are trading lower on the second last day of the week as traders and investors digest the current earnings’ season while keeping a close eye on the economic data, which is very much not going to shape the monetary policy of central banks, but it could also provide a massive tailwind for the equity markets in the US and in Europe, which they desperately need. Earlier today, in Europe, we had a mixed bag of earnings from a number of major players. Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB) and Barclays (NYSE: BCS) produced decent earnings numbers. For instance, Barclays, first quarter net income was 1.55 billion pounds, which was way ahead of expectations. Similarly, Deutsche Bank also reported 1.275 billion euros of profit, which is a 10% annual increase. However, both banks failed to impress investors, and their stocks traded in negative territory during the early morning’s price action. Neste, another major player in the consumer sector, also failed to impress markets as it reported a 5.9% fall in sales for the quarter to 22.1 bullion Swiss francs, and most of the drag came from North American markets. However, as always, the shining spot for the company was its organic sales growth—a trend that many consumers are favouring despite higher inflation pressure, which has already squeezed their disposable income. The company did assure investors that its strategies to promote organic products are still very ...