The title began more than 11% above its IPO price, reaching a high of 45 dollars, according to Reuters data, before losing ground and return to its IPO price, 38 dollars.

The transaction enabled the world's first social network to raise $ 18.4 billion (14.4 billion euros) and to be valued at $ 104 billion, more than Hewlett-Packard and Starbucks combined. 

After a delay in its quotation that fueled the impatience of traders and commentators around the world, the title began in Facebook stock at 1530 GMT at 42.05 dollars.

The group's headquarters in Silicon Valley and the applause of his employees, the founder and CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg, 28, rang the bell to mark the debut of Exchange community site for 900 million users.

Outside the offices of the company thronged reporters and photographers. Above their heads, even a helicopter had been sent by U.S. television on the occasion of the IPO, the largest history of American technology stocks.

"A jump of 15% to 20% is about as possible," thought Tim Loughran, a finance professor at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, before the start of trading .

Some investors believe the stock could gain 30% or more, on Friday despite persistent questions about the actual ability of Facebook to generate sustainable profits.

After just one hour of trading, Pivotal Research Group already recommended to sell the security. 

"The market is currently valuing Facebook as an asset less risky than Google, which we believe is absolutely not the case," said Brian Wieser, one of the firm's analysts in a research note .

The average of analysts' estimates compiled by Morningstar predicts a closing price Friday of $ 50.

At 16:30 GMT, gained 9.53% to 41.62 dollars.

A version of "Scream", the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, was sold Wednesday night for 119.92 million dollars in New York, becoming a work of art the most expensive ever sold at auction. The sale in the crowd of Sotheby's lasted only 12 minutes, sometimes climbing the auction of more than 10 million in one minute. In an electric atmosphere, seven buyers were hotly contested this work lighthouse, which was estimated at 80 million.  

The pastel made in 1895 and representing a man shouting, hands on ears, bloody sky background in Oslo, was the only one of four versions of "The Scream" still owned by an individual. The sale ended to loud applause, while the auctioneer Tobias Meyer announced a "world record". No detail was given on the buyer, in the center of much discussion after the sale, but the seller, businessman Norwegian Petter Olsen, said he was "very happy" to have become man such a record, at a brief press conference.

Between 1893 and 1910, Munch, expressionist painter (1863-1944) had made four versions of this table over the years become a symbol of universal anxiety. Wednesday night that sold during the sale of impressionist and modern art at Sotheby's for 70 years belonged to the family Olsen, Petter Olsen holding his father Thomas, neighbor, friend and protector of Munch. She had the particularity to include, in red letters inscribed on the frame of light wood, the poem that inspired this work among the best known in the world.

The other three versions of the table belong to the Munch Museum in Oslo (2) and the National Gallery in Oslo (1). Welcoming a "historic evening", Simon Shaw, head of Impressionist and modern art at Sotheby's, emphasized the universality of "Scream", the "key to the modern consciousness". The painting, which was the subject of countless books, films and studies, and has been declining over the years on mugs, calendars, t-shirts and other objects of daily life, is "one of the few images that transcend the art and history to reach the international conscience, "he stressed before the sale.

Only eight works had previously exceeded $ 80 million at an auction, and none had reached 100 million under the hammer, which was the case for Munch. The world record was previously held by Picasso, "Nu au Plateau sculptor", sold $ 106.4 million (with fees) in May 2010 at Christie's in New York. In his diary, January 22, 1892, Munch had explained his inspiration for "The Scream": "I was walking on a path with two friends. The sun was setting. Suddenly the sky turned blood red. I stopped, exhausted, I'm leaning on a fence, there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and city. My friends have continued, and I just stood there, trembling with fear. I sensed an infinite scream passing through the universe "

. Wednesday evening, Petter Olsen gave his own interpretation of a work" remain a major force in (his) life "." The Scream shows the scary moment for me where man realizes his impact on nature and irreversible changes that he initiated, making this planet more inhabitable, " he said, paying tribute to the vision "prescient" by Munch. With the revenues from the sale, he planned to build a new museum dedicated to the artist in Norway

.. The sale of the Munch ……. allowed Sotheby's to beat its previous record for an evening auction of impressionist and modern art, which was 286.2 million dollars, and dated from 1990. Wednesday night, the sales of 65 of the 76 proposed lots totaled 330.56 million dollars.

She explains that in his view, the growth can not depend solely on stimulus costly for public budgets.

"It is important that we distance ourselves vis-à-vis the idea that you should always spend money to get economic growth," she said, according to excerpts from the interview released before its publication. 

"Sustainable growth is based more on education and research and innovation capacities of SMEs."

Germany, who had fought the 2008-2009 recession with a stimulus package of 81 billion euros, took the lead of states shifting the focus to fiscal austerity measures against ; the sovereign debt crisis.

But an increasingly hostile public opinion and certain officers to austerity in several countries in the euro area has reopened the debate on the advisability of measures to support growth . 

In France, the favorite for the second round of presidential elections, the socialist Francois Hollande, wants to engage if elected Sunday a renegotiation of the European fiscal pact meant facilitate the reduction of deficits. It also advocates that the European Central Bank (ECB) do more to support economic activity.

Angela Merkel warned against any relaxation of the fiscal pact, it is preferable to consider measures mobilizing "political courage and creativity more than billions."

She argues for including the removal of barriers to youth employment and the strengthening of vocational training systems, to further open the labor market. 

Repeating remarks already held the last weekend in another interview to the press, she told the Hamburger Abendblatt that Germany was in favor of strengthening resources EIB, the financing arm of the European Union in the field of investments, as well as a more flexible use of EU structural funds.

Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs the Eurogroup of finance ministers ruled Monday as possible an increase of 10 billion euros from the EIB's capital.

Net loss for the first quarter totaled $ 176 million or $ 0.20 per share, against a net loss of $ 0.01 in the fourth quarter 2011 and net income of $ 0.19 per diluted share in first quarter 2011.

An arbitration STMicroelectronics forced to pay nearly $ 59 million to NXP Semiconductors.

The turnover is meanwhile stood at 2.02 billion dollars, representing a sequential decline of 8%. 

"The losses in the segment of products for cell phones (Wireless) have once again weighed on our quarterly results," said CEO of the leading European manufacturer of semiconductors, Bozotti.

For the second quarter 2012, the Company expects an increase in turnover of about 7.5% over the first quarter, plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Gross margin for the second quarter should be around 34.4%, plus or minus 1.5 percentage points.

STMicroelectronics fell sharply Monday on the Paris Stock Exchange after the announcement of an intensified restructuring of its subsidiary, ST-Ericsson.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday that there was "more likely to collapse of the euro", but that Europe was "recovering", warning that any "loosening" in the reduction of deficits would convey to France "the fate of Spain."

"The risk of implosion of the euro no longer exists, but Europe is recovering, it is a reality and we have no room for error," the president said on RTL candidate. According to him, "the minute we let up the pressure on spending cuts, deficit reduction, debt, France experienced the fate of Spain."

"France has raised 8 billion before yesterday (Wednesday, ed) to finance its debt. It did so in a historically low, below 3%. Spain, at the same minute, borrows to finance its debt, twice the price of France. The same causes produce the same effects, "he said.

"During the 2007 campaign, Ségolène Royal, PS candidate, praised the example of Spain, and Mr. Holland was received" during the election campaign "by one Prime Minister (Jose Luis Rodriguez) Zapatero," former Spanish Prime Minister, Socialist. "I do not know if the Spanish example is still relevant," he added.

The Dow Jones gained 1.41% or 181.19 points, to 12,986.58 points. The Standard & Poor's, wider, has advanced 1.38% or 18.86 points to 1387.57 points while the Nasdaq composite took 1.3% or 39.09 points to 3055.55 points.

The S & P 500 benchmark fund managers, rose above its 50-day moving average, as if traders felt the recent decline of nearly 5% as an opportunity to catch up with the performance of the index.

The S & P gained more than 10% since the beginning of the year.

The market did not consider the surprise hike in jobless claims last week to 380,000. Economists anticipated 355,000 claims. Some economists said the statistic is not very significant given the Easter weekend.

Bond yields in Italy and Spain fell after a strong demand during an operation launched this week by Italy.

"The decline in bond yields is a signal for investors, here, that things are not as bad as this in Europe," said Brian Gendreau, market specialists at Cetera Financial Group.

Traders also cited expectations of a pleasant surprise on the side of the figures of gross domestic product (GDP) of China, to be released Friday morning. Some are skeptical about this rumor.

"Chinese history is being misinterpreted. The Chinese government researcher who is supposed to have commented on China's GDP has talked about 9% GDP growth for all of 2012 and said he anticipated that 8.4 to 8%, 5% for the first quarter, which is in line with expectations, "said Peter Boockvar, equity specialist at Miller Tabak in New York

. The first results of companies have also published a good effect. Analysts say expectations may have been lowered too much and that the shares may now seem cheap and after the 5% decline that has just recorded the S & P. ​​

Alcoa has continued to benefit from the positive effect generated ; by its results. The value rose 2.7% after surging 6.34% on Wednesday.

Values ​​of raw materials have been sought. U.S. Steel gained 7.5% to 29.36 dollars.

Values, Hewlett-Packard jumped 7.17% to 25.09 dollars. According to Gartner, PC shipments rose in the first quarter thanks to a recovery in demand in Europe.

The increase in the number of registered unemployed was 0.8% in March from February, 38,769 more job seekers. There are a total of 4.75 million unemployed Spaniards, according to figures from the Ministry of Labour.

The unofficial unemployment rate, which includes the unregistered unemployed, rose to 22.9% in fourth quarter 2011, the highest rate of all countries of the European Union.

Nearly a third of people in 17 countries in the euro area private employment are Spaniards and half of Spaniards under 25 are unemployed, according to Eurostat statistics.

The austerity plan announced Friday by the Madrid government to reduce the budget deficit, which includes a significant decrease in state spending, is likely to affect growth more Spanish . A reform of the labor market to make it more flexible may also enhance the rise in unemployment in the short term.

"Unemployment will continue to increase because it would grow around 1.4% or 1.5% to create jobs and it does not seem feasible before 2014," said the economist of Citi, Guillaume Menuet.

"The brutal reforms of the labor market generally results in more unemployment in the short term," he adds.

The Spanish government expects an economic contraction of 1.7% this year, a forecast more optimistic than Citi, which expects -2.7% in 2012 and -1 , 2% in 2013.

This is a direct consequence of the crisis and the lack of growth. The unemployment rate in the euro area in February reached its highest level in fifteen years, to 10.8% of the workforce, according to data Monday from the EU statistics office, Eurostat.

According to Eurostat calculations, 17,130,000 people were unemployed in February in the euro area, or 162,000 more than the previous month. This level ever since the creation of the euro area exceeds forecasts of analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires who had forecast an unemployment rate of 10.7% in February, as the previous month.

This is the tenth consecutive month in which unemployment has reached or exceeded the threshold of 10% in the euro area. Result: the euro zone now has 1.476 million more people unemployed than a year earlier.

Throughout the European Union (EU), the unemployment rate rose to 10.2% in February against 10.1% in January. This is also setting a record, said Eurostat. Once again, Spain is the bad boy of the EU with an unemployment rate of 23.6% followed by Greece with 21% (where the latest data refer to December), Portugal (15%) and Ireland (14.7%). In Italy, unemployment reached a record high of 9.3% in February.  

In contrast, the unemployment rate the lowest were recorded in Austria (4.2%), Netherlands (4.9%), Luxembourg (5.2%) and Germany (5.7%) .

The German state, through the state development bank KfW, would take over the holdings of automaker Daimler and several private banks, the source said, confirming a report in the German press.

"The draft supplementary budget foresees 1.6 billion euros for this purpose," the source said.

Germany had already indicated that it would buy 7.5% of EADS Daimler. The additional 4.5% will be purchased from the banking consortium Dedalus.

Around 10 am at the Paris Bourse, EADS gained 1.29% to 30.63 euros.

EADS is currently controlled by a partnership between Daimler, the French Lagardère and the French state.

The approach of Germany could weigh in the debate between Berlin EADS on the location of production sites, while the group has already warned Germany against any attempt to engineer ; reference.

The CEO of EADS Louis Welsh defended the project in early March of his designated successor Thomas Enders to domicile a greater number of group activities in Toulouse, where the headquarters of Airbus, attracting criticism from Berlin. 

A spokesman for the German Economy Ministry had refused Thursday to comment on the information on the purchase of greater participation by the state revealed by the Financial Times Deutschland, while a representative of EADS also refused to do so.

Nippon Steel Corp.. -A number of Japanese steel-and Sumitomo Metal Industries also plan to merge in October.

Nisshin and Nippon Metal, who in November announced their wish to merge this year, said in a statement that they had reached an agreement to combine, October 1, their activities under a holding company to be called Nisshin Steel Holdings Co.

Prior to this announcement, shares Nisshin Steel have closed unchanged at 145 yen.

Nisshin and Nippon Metal Industry said they planned cost savings and other synergies that increase by 13 billion yen (119 million) over five years their beneficial ; current fice.