LIVE MARKETS-On the radar: Automakers, Novartis, dividend cuts

* STOXX futures down

* Earnings season accelerates Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of European equity markets brought to you by Reuters stocks reporters. You can share your thoughts with Thyagaraju Adinarayan (thyagaraju.adinarayan@thomsonreuters.com), Joice Alves (joice.alves@thomsonreuters.com) and Julien Ponthus (julien.ponthus@thomsonreuters.com) in London and Stefano Rebaudo (stefano.rebaudo@thomsonreuters.com) in Milan.

ON THE RADAR: AUTOMAKERS, NOVARTIS, DIVIDEND CUTS (0650 GMT)

Hopes to get back to normal quickly and for the economy to suffer from a limited impact of the coronavirus outbreak are pretty weak this morning, after the shocking crash of U.S. crude oil futures.

Oil majors are on the front line obviously but the earnings season has a lot of light to shed on the damage inflicted by the pandemic related.

Carrefour, like many others recently, decided to cut its 2019 dividend (minus 50%), while CEO Alexandre Bompard will waive 25% of his fixed salary for two months. Francaise des Jeux cut will be of 30%.

LMC Automotive revised down its forecast by saying global vehicle production is now expected to fall more than 20% to around 71 million in 2020 as a result of the expected recession.

Thyssenkrupp said it was "examining whether and which forms of financial aid offered to companies by the public sector are suitable".

Sika grew in the first quarter but dropped its 2020 guidance saying the pandemic made forecasts impossible.

Novartis, which will be testing the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to see if it is effective against the Covid-19, hopes to have first results by June.

Workers at Ferrari are signing up for voluntary coronavirus screening so they can return to work.

Glencore, set to close the mine in Zambia due to pandemic-related disruptions and low copper prices, will reverse its early decision.

On the bright side, the high-frequency trading firm Flow Traders said its profit rose more than 10 times from last year, aided by the market volatility.

(Stefano Rebaudo)

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MORNING CALL: IN THE RED AFTER SHOCKING OIL CRASH (0536 GMT)

European futures are currently trading well in negative territory (-1.8% for the STOXX 50E), but roughly in line with the overnight performance of Asia and Wall Street, after U.S. crude futures plunged below zero, shocking investors and pushing down stocks.

While U.S. futures made their way back to positive territory, oil prices more broadly are still under selling pressure amid fears the coronavirus pandemic will continue to sap demand and hurt the economy.

The session will be also packed with quarterly earnings reports which are likely to underline once again the damage from the outbreak.

(Stefano Rebaudo)

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(Reporting by Thyagaraju Adinarayan, Joice Alves, Stefano Rebaudo and Julien Ponthus)