International Headlines and Stories

The U.S. stock markets have moved from dark red to balance on Friday afternoon. Opening on a steep downward trend after poor economic data, the indices on Wall Street have reduced their losses after the speech of Barack Obama. Around 17:15, the Dow Jones down more than 0.25% at 12,210 points and the Standard & Poor's 500 yields 0.02% to 1300 points while the Nasdaq 100 round ahead by 0.25% to 2773 points. Thursday, Wall Street recorded a fifth straight session decline.

Barack Obama spoke Friday. He urged Republicans and Democrats to find a solution to raise the debt ceiling by 2 August, when the United States would find themselves in default if no compromise was found."We are very far from reaching an agreement, there are plenty of solutions," tried to reassure the U.S. president, stating that "any solution should be supported by both parties."

A dicours has reassured the markets but in the beginning of sessions, investissuers received three cold showers on.

The bad news on the front of the U.S. economy weighed heavily on the trend of economic growth the U.S. has slowed sharply in 2011 to 1.3% annual rate in the second quarter in a first estimate published Friday by the U.S. government.This growth rate, below analysts' expectations (1.8%), is particularly low given the significant revision of the first quarter, now estimated at 0.4% against 1.9% in June

A little later, more bad news: the U.S. consumer sentiment deteriorated more than expected in July, falling to a level not seen since March 2009, weighed down by rising unemployment and stagnating purchasing power, reveal final estimates of the survey Reuters / University of Michigan reported Friday.

In addition, economic activity in the Chicago area (northern USA) decelerated in July, according to the index released Friday by the professional association ISM, which stood at 58.8 against 61.1 in June

Moody's lowers rating outlook for Spain

Adding to the nervousness of the markets in Europe, the rating agency Moody's is considering lowering the rating of Spain. On the foreign exchange market, the euro was immediately dropped below the 1.43 dollar. Around 11:00, the European currency was worth 1.4276 dollars against 1.4324 dollars on Thursday night. Oil prices also retreated in the late morning. A barrel of Brent North Sea crude for September delivery was trading at 117.10 dollars on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) in London, down 26 cents from the close of Thursday.In electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a barrel of "light sweet crude" (WTI) for the same maturity fell by 52 cents to 96.92 dollars.

The side of values

Starbucks (-1% to 39.58 dollars) unveiled for the third quarter of its fiscal year profit up 34% to 279 million and a turnover of 2.9 billion dollars, up 12% and 8 % same-store thanks to an increase in traffic (6%) and average ticket (2%). CEO Howard Schultz commented: "We hope to achieve our EPS growth of 15% to 20% in fiscal 2012. ".

For his part, Metlife (1.48% at 40 and 40 dollars) recorded operating income of $ 16.9 billion, up 33%.Premiums and other revenues increased to 11.8 38U billion, following the acquisition of Alico, while investment income jumped 24% to $ 5.1 billion.

Chesapeake Energy (3.77% to 34.69 dollars) realized in the third quarter earnings per share of 0.76 dollars against 0.75 dollars excluding special items.

Expedia (3.48% to $ 30) recorded an adjusted earnings per share of 0.55 dollars in the second quarter against 0.44 dollar a year earlier. Revenues jumped 23% to $ 1 billion. Gross bookings increased 19% and the number of transactions increased by 15% while advertising revenues rose 27%.

McKesson (0.60% to 80.08 dollars) made from earnings per share for the first quarter of 1.27 dollar against 1.16 dollar last year and a turnover of 30 billion dollars in 9% increase.The company raised its earnings per share target to 6.09 – 6.29 dollars against a previous estimate of 5.55 – 5.75 dollars.

Motorola Mobility (-5.06% to 21.75 dollars) has issued an earnings per share for the second quarter of 0.09 dollars against a loss of 0.3 dollar per share last year. Sales rose 28% to $ 3.3 billion.