Oct 17 2011

The uncertainty weighs on the CAC after the G20 meeting

Tag: events, features, people, resources, technologyadmin @ 9:48 pm

After winning nearly 4% last week, the CAC 40 was hesitant Monday. After opening on a positive note on Monday, rising 0.81% to 3243.93 points, it is passed back to balance, to 3218.06 points (-0.02%) on the stroke of 13 hours.

Investors have not long welcomed the determination shown by European finance ministers at the G20 Finance last weekend. At this meeting, the central bankers of the EU porutant promised to bring an answer this week "comprehensive and lasting peace" to the debt crisis at the G20. "Advanced countries will adopt, taking into account their respective national circumstances, policies to strengthen the confidence and support growth and implement measures clear, credible and targeted to rebalance public finances" stressed ministers in statement.

Above all, they promise to make a decision at the European Summit of October 23, described as "decisive" on Saturday by Minister of Economy Baroin. For its part, the ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said the euro was "not threatened", but called on all Europeans to be "extremely vigilant" with regard to public finances.

Attempted to reassure the ability of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to support countries in difficulty, Christine Lagarde, the Executive Director, has determined that the resources of the institution for the time were "appropriate" and "fit" to Micro Europe 1.And, while many European countries are considering to use the Fund to prevent contagion of the crisis in the euro area in case of bankruptcy of Athens.

Measures of expected savings on the U.S. side

On the other side of the Atlantic, U.S. President Barack Obama must include measures of fiscal consolidation through a savings plan. Last Friday, the country's budget deficit reached 8.7% of GDP in 2010-2011, 0.3 points less than in the previous year, according to the Treasury. In absolute terms however, the fiscal gap widened slightly compared to fiscal 2010, 0.4%, from the threshold of 1.299 trillion dollars, making it the second biggest deficit of the History of the United States.Concerns also weigh on U.S. growth, after the deterioration of consumer sentiment surprise U.S. beginning in October, falling incomes leading consumer expectations to their lowest level for over 31 years.

Following the announcement of the failure of 20% of the 360,000 small businesses in Zhejiang Province since the beginning of the year, Beijing also pledged to "rebalance" its growth engines through a battery of measures this week.

The euro retreated slightly

On the foreign exchange market, the euro fell slightly against the U.S. dollar on Monday morning at 1.284 dollars (-0.21%). While oil was up in Asia after a barrel of "light sweet crude" for November delivery clinching 35 cents to 87.15 dollars in early electronic trading.Barrel of Brent North Sea crude for December delivery gained 18 cents to 112.41 him dollars.

In terms of indicators, the United States, industrial activity in the region of New York (October) and the country's industrial production are expected in early afternoon.

In Europe, a speech in London Wolfgang Schäuble, German Minister of Finance, on financial regulation and fiscal consolidation is expected.

In Japan, industrial production for the month of August will be published in the day.

Banks remain top values ​​to follow this Monday

• Banking

Standard & Poor's (S & P) announced Friday it lowered the long-term rating of BNP Paribas (-1.47% to 31.77 euros) from "AA" to "AA-" and the Bichri (Banking Industry Country Risk Assessment) of France in Group 1 Group 2.In this context, investors will keep an eye on Societe Generale (-1.46% to 20.53 euros) and Credit Agricole (-1.52% to 5.11 euros).

• Dexia

The National Assembly will consider the draft supplementary budget by establishing a government guarantee.

• Air France-KLM (2.79% to 5.68 euros)

A special board meets Monday for the start RECORDED Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, as revealed by Le Figaro yesterday. In addition, three cabin crew unions (PNC) filed a strike notice for the weekend of All Saints to protest job cuts.

• Renault (+0.02% at 27.48 euros)

The new organization called the head of the manufacturer after the false spy case will come into force on 2 November as planned and strengthen the power of the CEO Carlos Ghosn with the aim to avoid the fiasco of the early recurrence in 2011.

• Axa (0.82% to 11.02 euros)

The French insurer Axa wants to eliminate by 2015 about 1,500 jobs in Germany, or one sixth of its workforce in the country, the Financial Times Deutschland on Monday.

• Eurosic (-0.68% to 32.27 euros)

The group has completed the acquisition of 22 office buildings with GE Capital Real Estate valued rights included 340 million euros.

• Edenred (-0.26% to 19.10 euros), Guyenne Gascogne (0.62% to 81 euros), Mercialys (-0.58% to 27.37 euros) will release its third quarter results after market close.


Oct 14 2011

The euro, driven by a return of confidence

Tag: Uncategorized, events, features, opinions, traveladmin @ 1:44 pm

Signs of renewed confidence in the euro area is growing. At a time when international financial markets reflected the colors, the single currency rises against major currencies. The euro stabilized early this morning above the threshold of 1.38 to 1.3808 dollars against 1.3617 dollars just yesterday, its highest level since Sept. 16. The euro also advanced against the Japanese currency to 106.52 yen against 104.52 yen a day earlier.

This rise of the single currency is a sign, according to one analyst, "the market seems a little more optimistic." In fact, for several weeks and an acute crisis on debt, the euro was more the subject of a "massive unwinding of positions."

Investors continue to regain confidence in the idea of ​​a solution to the debt crisis.Policymakers ensure that the enlargement of the European financial stability will be ratified soon, Slovakia should indeed turn around in a new vote tomorrow. What can the countries of the euro area together to help troubled banks to recapitalize, to avoid the bankruptcy of an institution that could create a systemic shock.

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Sep 26 2011

Week crucial for Greece

Tag: features, finance, international, money, specialadmin @ 9:32 am

A new week high voltage for Greece and the euro area. In fact, Sunday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that a delegation will travel to Athens this week to determine whether or not the country can benefit from the sixth round of eight billion euros of the loan in May 2010 , aid became vital for the country. The CEO of the institution, Christine Lagarde, has indeed met the Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos on Sunday to discuss the conditions for the return of the IMF in the country to complete the fifth audit of the Greek economic program. The mission "will certainly place this week," said Fund.

In parallel, Evangelos Venizelos, the Greek finance minister, yesterday met with Jean-Claude Trichet, head of the ECB, to negotiate a restructuring of the Greek debt at a discount of between 40% and 50%.The minister said that "there is no alternative to restructuring." He said at the annual meeting of the Institute of International Finance (IIF), an association of 450 banks in the world: "We are ready to take the necessary whatever the political cost." And said it was confident about the outcome of the vote in parliament of the new austerity plan, condition of the granting of new loans of the troika, because according to him "which member will take responsibility to lead Greece to a default? ".

Germany mobilized

A view shared by the French Minister for European Affairs, Jean Leonetti, who said Sunday that "Greece will avoid bankruptcy because it is the interest of the Greek state, the Greek people and is the interest of us all.If Greece were to fail tomorrow, it would cost more than if it did not go bankrupt, "he said on Radio France International business card.

The Heads of State and Government in July found an agreement to rescue Greece and broaden the scope of intervention of the relief fund of the zone (EFSF), including providing it with an instrument enabling it to market purchases of debt of states in difficulty. This agreement is being ratified by 17 national parliaments in the area. The vote of Germany, the country is the biggest contributor to EU aid plans appear on track.In a television interview Sunday night, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has indeed shown the outcome of the confidence vote scheduled Thursday in the Bundestag.

In addition, the German Chancellor said that allowing Greece to fail would destroy investor confidence in the euro area and could cause infection comparable to that following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008.

The rising social discontent in Greece

But Greece will probably have to wait beyond the holding of a Eurogroup meeting on Oct. 3 before a decision on the release of the next tranche of aid."Given the delay by the Troika mission (IMF, ECB and European Commission), I do not think that the next meeting of the Eurogroup, October 3, a decision on the sixth installment," said Sunday Washington Deputy German Finance Minister, Jörg Asmussen

In addition, the rising social discontent in Greece. Further strikes are planned next week before a general strike on October 19.

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Sep 24 2011

U.S. funds flee European banks

Tag: economic, economy, features, international, moneyadmin @ 11:00 pm

The crisis of confidence in the European banking sector will not work out. While Europe is trying to convince the world of the soundness of its banks in the current crisis, the major U.S. money market funds prefer to leave the ship. A study published Friday by the rating agency Fitch Ratings, the top ten overseas funds have massively reduced their exposure to European banks. They thus cut their dollar investments in European banking shares by 8% in August, after a fall of 9% in July. Since late May, their exhibit was planed by 27% guaranteed high risk personal loans.

Today, European banking shares held by ten U.S. funds represent 676 billion dollars, or 42.1% of their overall portfolio. These investments still weighed 47.2% in late July."Reducing exposure to leading European banks is largely offset by increased investment in financial institutions in Australia, Canada, Japan and Scandinavia," said Robert Grossman, an official of Fitch Ratings.

Some European countries are more affected than others by the flight of U.S. investment.


Sep 21 2011

Monaco: successful challenge to the marriage

Tag: economic, online, people, publications, traveladmin @ 1:20 am

Albert II of Monaco and Charlene Wittstock reported close to the rock. The royal couple, who has said yes last July, allowed Monaco to garner nearly 10 million. The celebrations, which took place over three days, had in fact cost 19.578 million euros (paid by the State of Monaco to the tune of 9.178 million and 10.4 million in the Palace). But the direct and indirect economic benefits are, they estimated at 29 million euros, according to the Institute of Statistics Monaco (IMSE).

Direct benefits, which include expenses related to the organization made in the Principality, were valued at 14.9 million euros.According to the Minister of State Michel Roger, "76% benefited local economic entities", ie the sectors of hotels, restaurants, service providers and equipment supply.

The indirect benefits generated by visitors and participants in various events during the wedding, have immediately helped raise 4.6 million euros (2.5 million are still went to the restaurant, 1, 5 to 0.6 million hotel and derivatives such as objects and stamps). In the long term, they need to generate about 9 million.

"Capitalize" on these benefits

For Monaco and its 35,000 inhabitants, the bet seems successful. This marriage has given a boost to a tourism industry that marked the coup in 2009.The Tourism Monaco confirmed a very good month of July: "The Principality has 75,000 monthly overnights. In July, 80% of them were occupied, "said a statement citing" great numbers that exceed the reference years were 2007 or 2008. "The Oceanographic Museum and its exhibition "Story of the Royal Wedding" shows the tourist craze sparked by the marriage of July as recorded 100,000 visitors in less than a month.

To maximize the benefits for the long term, officials are working on Monegasque a special program named "Monaco, the world capital of romance" with the goal of "capitalizing on the benefits of international royal wedding and set up a course marriage," said Bouquier Michel, the Commissioner General of Tourism.

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Aug 16 2011

Crisis: the common front Sarkozy-Merkel

Tag: Uncategorized, business, news, online, opinionsadmin @ 1:20 am

A day back in the middle of August. Nicolas Sarkozy will be in Paris today for lunch with François Fillon, then to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, herself back from vacation.

At a time when the euro area is attacked, France and Germany are trying to show a united front and show their determination to end the crisis. The mini-summit will be devoted to devising solutions to improve the governance of the euro area, which concern failures in financial markets. Although not conclusive a priori – "do not expect anything spectacular," said a spokesman yesterday the German government – the meeting should enable the two leaders to lay the groundwork for the future.

Sensitivity of the issue Eurobonds will however not address, contrary to the hopes markets.Berlin's opposition to the creation of common obligations to countries in the euro area has long been known. The Merkel government has good reason to be against: issued in the name of all countries, eurobonds have an interest rate equal to the average rate in effect in all countries. It would therefore be higher than that which currently takes Berlin. Until now, France is merely to show little enthusiasm for these Eurobonds.

Yesterday, Paris is out of the woods to show his unity with his partner. "The Euro-bonds are not an adequate response today. Common issue bonds requires a degree of economic integration and budgetary countries that we have not met, "says one as president fast cash. Paris joins Berlin on another "nyet" to increase the capacity of the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF), now with 440 billion euros."The level of funding is appropriate," they say at the Elysee.

Hours before his meeting with Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy has discussed with Francois Fillon and French public finances. Lead to disappointing growth, the government has no choice: even a few months before the elections, it must take further austerity measures. France, which is followed closely by the markets, absolutely must bring its deficit to 4.6% of GDP in 2012.

Niche in their sights

To achieve this, taking into account a sluggish economy, the figure of 10 billion euros of savings is often cited. But do not confirm Bercy. In the entourage of Valérie Pécresse, the budget minister, it says only that "these savings are the result of efforts on spending cuts and tax loopholes."Last week, he had urged his counterparts from the euro area to take all necessary measures, including the creation of Euro-bonds, to avoid disintegration of the single currency "that would be an economic catastrophe, including for the United Kingdom ".

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May 28 2011

Europe hunts down contaminated cucumbers

Tag: Uncategorized, features, life, people, technologyadmin @ 7:48 am

The health alert was launched Thursday by the European authorities. Three cucumbers from Spain, and perhaps also from the Netherlands, are the cause of the contamination of 276 persons to the enterohaemorrhagic E.coli (EHEC) in Germany. Two have died after contracting hemolytic uremic syndrome, which manifests itself especially by bloody diarrhea.

Across Europe, national health authorities are looking into whether contaminated cucumbers are on their soil. Result of this tracking, Friday morning, Denmark indicated that the lots were problematic in two wholesalers. These have been withdrawn from sale. The Danish health agency recommended that consumers not eat raw cucumbers from Spain or tomatoes and salad from northern Germany.

"In the midst of proceedings"

In France, the hunt is underway."To our knowledge, there is no contaminated lots in France," said a spokesman Interfel, the professional association for fruit and vegetables. Thanks to the labeling requirement, it is possible to reconstruct the path of the affected vegetables from producer to distributor, even when a lot was broken by a wholesaler. "We are proceeding rapidly," nuance does one side of the DGCCRF (Directorate General for Competition, Consumption and Fraud Control).

The tracing stops when the product was sold, investigators can not trace back to the consumer's fridge. Germany is a major consumer of cucurbits in Spain. She is also the first client, with 80,569 tonnes imported in the first three months of the year, according to figures from the inter Spanish fruit and vegetables.France has for its part consumed 13,294 tons of cucumbers in Spain over the same period.

Health authorities are uploaded to the producers of cucumbers, organic gardening regions of Almeria and Malaga. Investigations have been launched in Germany to determine if other cucurbits infected come from other regions. In Spain, "the Andalusian authorities are currently investigating to find out where the contamination and when it occurred," said a spokesman for the Spanish Food Safety Agency (EASA).

"We do not know where is the contamination occurred and the European Commission highlighted the fact that it occurred outside the country of origin" of cucumbers, said Friday the Spanish Minister of Agriculture Rosa Aguilar.So far there is no evidence and there is no evidence that this could happen in the country of origin. "

Washing vegetables

The Spaniards are wondering, according to a European source, if the cucumbers were not contaminated by falling on the ground at Hamburg. "Usually, vegetables are not high-risk products, but may be soiled or in contact with the ground during transport," says one to the DGCCRF. Wash and peel vegetables would reduce by almost 90% less chance of contamination.


May 15 2011

Bonus: Bercy judge charges 'unfair'

Tag: economy, events, online, top news, worldadmin @ 1:44 am

The French Finance Ministry responded late, but with great detail, the controversy launched by MEP in Europe Ecology Canfin Pascal, on the bonuses of bankers and traders French.In Libération, 7 May, he thought the amounts paid by banks not complying with EU rules.

The MEP said that France would not accurately transposed the directive on variable compensation, which would allow certain bankers, including Baudouin Prot (Chief Executive Officer of BNP Paribas) and Frederic Oudéa (CEO of Societe Generale) to receive bonus of several million euros, four to five times larger than their fixed salaries, under the year 2010.

"It's unfair to single out France!" Says it does at Bercy, where we recall that the decree implementing the EU directive was sent to Brussels in March 2011, without comment, to To date, the European Commission, while "warnings" have yet been sent to 12 Member States in March …

Variable part, fixed part

G20 first to denounce the perverse bonuses, France is presented as a model student for the application of new rules on the matter. To demonstrate that the volume of bonuses paid in 2011 for the year 2010 is declining, Bercy dotted with numbers: the ratio of net income bonus on the Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) would be increased from 125% 2007 to 100% in 2009 and 30% in 2010.According to references of the two great Parisian institutions BNP and Societe Generale, the average bonus would have decreased from 303 000 in 2009 to 290 000 euros in 2010 and 231 000 in 2009 to 198 000 euros in 2010.

Moreover, the share of bonuses in total compensation would have increased by over 75% in 2009 to 60% in 2010. An average does not represent the variable portion of 62% of the remuneration of Baudouin Prot in 2010 and 73% of that of Frederick Oudéa."In the spirit of French and European legislation, it was a 50/50 balance the ratio between the fixed and variable pay," recalls in Paris say, "there is that the European Parliament who wanted the 50/50, but that would inevitably lead to a wage explosion … "

Finally, Bercy said that more than 60% of the bonuses awarded in 2010 were deferred for three years at least, and that banks resort more to guaranteed bonuses over several years.

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May 12 2011

The Asian market returns in the red

Tag: events, international, life, online, resourcesadmin @ 4:56 pm

The sessions are followed and do not resemble the Asian stock markets. After all generally closed higher Wednesday, they slipped into the red on Thursday, hurt by the sharp drop on Wall Street last night. Like the U.S. stock markets, Asian financial markets are affected by falling oil prices. A trend that seems to reverse this Thursday in electronic trading in Asia, oil starting again significantly higher to 99.50 dollars (1.31%).

Japan: current accounts slashed by the earthquake

Anyway, this revival does not seem to reassure investors, oil prices have not passed the symbolic 100 dollars, according to some analysts. The Nikkei 225 closed sharply down from 1.50% to 9716.65 points. In the oil sector, Inpex shows a sharp decline of 3.42% to 564,000 yen.

After publishing yesterday's annual and quarterly results, and reassuring comments on its outlook for production, Toyota leapt 3.05% to 3370 yen and Nissan, which has published, after market, net income increased more than seven takes 1 , 40% to 795 yen.

On the macroeconomic front, the country saw its current account surplus dropped 34.3% in March year on year to 1.679 billion yen (14.6 billion euros), due to the earthquake of 11 March, which has disrupted production and exports.

The Taiwan Stock Exchange is resistant to red wave

In China, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong coward 0.83% to 23,098.80 points. Aluminum Corp. of China sells 2.42% to 6.86 Hong Kong dollars, CNOOC, 1.82% to 18.28 Hong Kong dollars and China Coal Energy, 2.95% to 9.86 Hong Kong dollars.As for the CSI 300 in Shanghai, it was down 0.17% at 3139.71 points.

Other financial centers in the Asian region, one resists Exchange: Taiwan, including Taiwan TAIEX gained 0.33% to 9050.50 points. Conversely, the KRX 100 Index dropped 1.48% from Seoul to 4558 points, the S & P / ASX 200 in Sydney fell sharply from 1.28% to 4718.80 points, the FTSE Straits Times sells 0.70 % to 3154.96 points and the BSE Sensex 30 Bombay lost 0.29% to 18,531.50 points.


Apr 28 2011

Technip straightens its margins

Tag: Uncategorized, features, finance, money, opinionsadmin @ 9:32 am

The oil services group announced Thursday morning that net income for the first quarter of 104.3 million euros, up 8.8% over the same period last year. This result comes from a quarterly turnover shows an increase over one year of similar magnitude (+8.9%) to $ 1.4362 billion euros. These quarterly revenue slightly below expectations, but net income, it exceeds the expectations of analysts.

This difference is explained by the better than expected recovery in operating margin of Technip. Reaching 10.1% in the quarter, it is higher by 1.3 points in the consensus of analysts. It is still a little worse than the first quarter of 2010 (-0.3 points).

The Europe-Russia-Central Asia, the largest market Technip

The sales increase was primarily in the Europe-Russia-Central Asia.In this area, sales surged by 49.6% over one year to 398 million euros. The Europe-Russia-Central Asia became the first market Technip, while at the same time last year, it generated less revenue than the African zone (down from 2.7% in the first quarter this year ) and especially, the American zone. Largest market last year, the region saw its American sales by 22.1% melt over one year to 243.6 million euros, becoming the third largest market group.

The group's net cash position remains essentially unchanged at 1.3 billion euros, or 2.4% less than at the end of December.

Technip believes that its results "demonstrate the value of activity based on a diversified backlog."It confirmed its guidance for fiscal 2011 and expects its annual turnover is 6.5 to 6.7 billion euros, with a margin combined operating Subsea between 6% and 6, 5%.


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