In Paris the CAC 40 index managed to stay above the threshold of 3,400 points, taking 0.14% to 3,409,90 points after spending much of the session negative territory. In Frankfurt the Dax gave 0.16%, while the FTSE in London lost 0.03% Pan-European and Euro Stoxx 50 index has been 0.25%.

A Greek government official reported that Athens was finalizing a document that outlines the reforms demanded by its lenders in exchange for the payment of the second plan bailout of 130 billion euros.

On currency markets, this information has boosted the euro, which reached its highest since mid-December.

The Stoxx Europe 600 bank of erased its losses to finish up 0.47%, with gains between 1.2% and 2.1% for BNP Paribas, Societe Generale and Credit Agricole.

Conversely, UBS fell 1.44% in volume fed. The Swiss bank fears a difficult start after reporting lackluster figures for its fourth quarter 2011.

Swatch has lost nearly 4% after announcing an operating profit of 1.61 billion Swiss francs in 2011, slightly below expectations.

On Wall Street, the Dow, the S & P and the Nasdaq composite earn around 0.2% to 1630 GMT.

Bunds have erased their gains on the information of progress towards a political agreement with Greece on the financial rescue of the country.

The Euribor fell to new lows of 11 months in prospect of another massive injection of liquidity into the banking system by the European Central Bank, at its next auction paper to three years scheduled for late February. 

The euro has climbed more than 1% to 1.32708 to the dollar on the electronic platform EBS, its highest level since mid-December.

"The information from Greece to Athens remove an obstacle to alleviate short-term and massive credit risk, which is positive for the euro," noted Boris Schlossberg director of currency research at GFT.

Brent crude rose around 116 dollars a barrel, still carried by the cold wave in Europe, tensions on Iran's nuclear program and turmoil in Syria.

The Nikkei gained 97.27 points to 8,929.20 points and the Topix broader took 9.16 points (1.2%) to 769.85 points.

"It's pretty good for exporters," said Nicholas Smith, a specialist at CLSA Japan, commenting on the monthly report on employment in the United States that showed Friday that unemployment had fallen ; to its lowest level in nearly three years.

Panasonic has taken the title of the session 6.34% after touching a low of more than 30 years Friday, in response to a forecast of record annual loss amounting to ; eight billion euros.

In its "beige book" summary of economic conditions in the 12 districts of the U.S. central bank, the Fed also notes that the pressures on consumer prices remained moderate and some cost pressures had decreased.

This finding is likely to give more leeway to the Fed in terms of monetary easing if growth were to weaken in early 2012 because of the consequences of global activity in the European debt crisis.

For now, the report confirms what had already been said in the latest "Beige Book" dated: the growth of the economy is not threatened, but the conditions underlying depression can not lower the unemployment rate, currently 9%.

"Overall, economic activity grew at a slow to moderate pace since the last report (…) except the district of St.

The return of the French debt to 10 years who had scarcely changed after the publication of this note was then increased to about 3.68% to 16.45, the yield differential with Germany (the "spread") oscillating around 165 basis points. It was over 200 points last week for the first time since the creation of the euro.

"According to Fitch's central scenario, the numbers of French public finances remain consistent with the conservation of its AAA rating," writes the rating agency.

The gross debt of the country in this case could reach the upper limit of the range that Fitch considers consistent with a AAA rating – if this level is temporary and decline thereafter – 90 to 100% of GDP.

"If all of the 158.5 billion euros in France's commitments to the EFSF was disbursed, the gross public debt would reach 98.2% of GDP in 2014, the top of the range compatible with its status as a AAA "Fitch wrote.

"However, based on net debt and if the loans were accounted EFSF (with a discount of 50%) as liquid assets, the debt would peak at just over 80% of GDP in 2014.

The group, which owns Gucci, Puma, Fnac and Redcats, saw sales grow by 8% to 3.86 billion euros, higher than the consensus of analysts polled by Reuters (3.8 billion).Organic growth stood at 7% instead of 5.4% expected.

Especially, the group surprised by organic growth well above the expectations in luxury (Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta and Balenciaga), where it reached 25% (23% after the first half) instead of the anticipated 19% .

The only Gucci brand, which accounts for nearly 60% of operating profit of the group, grew by 21% (22% in first half).

The Chief Financial Officer, Jean-François Palus, said during a conference call that the dynamics remained equally strong in luxury in October and was confident for 2012.

In contrast, the performance degradation of Fnac and Redcats has accelerated.Sealed by the drop in consumption in France and Southern Europe, the distributor's sales of cultural products were down 4.2% on a comparable basis. Those of the cluster distance selling (La Redoute, Vertbaudet and Cyrillus) fell 5.6%.

PPR, which wants to focus on luxury and sports fashion by selling its retail brands, was forced, with the deterioration of access to credit due to the crisis, to postpone the sale of Redcats.

The group, which has designs on Brioni, continuing discussions with the Italian tailor, said Chief Financial Officer without elaborating.

The sporting goods company Puma, which released its figures on Tuesday reported a 10% increase in sales in the third quarter.

There is something to speculate. While the French government Monday strongly denied any plan to bail out banks hexagonal, a government source quoted by AFP said Tuesday that the executive intends to take "tough decisions" for banks and assistance to Greece. Remains to be seen what these "tough decisions" and what the banks concerned.

"We must make tough decisions on Greece and the banks but we can not do it before that Germany has adopted Thursday the rescue plan," sources said the same source.The German parliament is to decide Thursday on expanding the envelope and skills of EFSF, the support fund for the euro area set up last year. German lawmakers should give the green light. Remains to be seen what would those "tough decisions" that can not be formally discussed before the decisive vote.

The vote of Germany, Europe's largest economy and biggest contributor to the fund with 200 billion euros of guarantees, should give a decisive impetus. While the implementation of this mechanism requires the approval of the rescue 17 members of the euro area and that some countries, like Slovakia, are still praying.

The chairman of the Financial Markets Authority (AMF) Jean-Pierre Jouyet spoke Friday of "situation, very, very worrying" in the markets and expressed concern of a "risk of systemic crisis" able to dive all the world into recession.

"We are in a State of Crisis" with "before us, the risk of systemic crisis", that is to say a collapse of the entire global economic system, noted Mr. Jouyet, questioned France Inter.This is due to "a very high debt in Japan", the "U.S. imbalances that are extremely deep despite recovery plans that do not give great result" and, in Europe, "the sovereign debt crisis," he said former Secretary of State for European Affairs.

"We need urgent action at the international level," he said, hoping that "the Europeans, Americans and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will at least get to make a shared". "This is expected by the markets," he said, "is to see a little clearer." "We are in a situation of a crisis of debt in 2008 was characterized by a rise in private debt, which today is characterized by a rise in public debt, government deficits and imbalances in all the world economies, "he summarized."It turns out that Europe is the epicenter of this crisis." "We're not in a better situation than in 2008," he warned.

Jean-Pierre Jouyet also found that the introduction of a tax on financial transactions, to which he was in favor, could worsen the current liquidity crisis in the euro area. "I am in favor of a tax on financial transactions" but "we must choose when it is made." But "what I said – and I take into consideration in my work – is that today, it will further increase the reluctance of investors, including Anglo-Saxon and American, to respect to the euro area, "said the president of the AMF.

After Paris and Berlin were in favor of such a tax in August, the summit of the major developed and emerging countries of the G20 in Cannes (South of France) should address the issue in early November.Britain and the United States were opposed to establishing such a mechanism. A transaction tax, such as those popularized by the economist James Tobin, is to take a very small percentage of financial flows ..

Portuguese statistical authorities announced Friday they had discovered undeclared debts of the Autonomous Region of Madeira that increase the government deficit in Portugal to 1.11 billion euros from 2008 to 2010, and that of the 568 million année.Selon a Joint Statement of the Bank of Portugal (OTP) and the National Statistics Institute (INE), this is a "serious omission of information" detected after a report of the Court of Auditors the finances of this small archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean.

These debts represent an impact on the public debt estimated at 0.3 percentage points of GDP and involves an upward revision of the deficit in 2008 (+0.08) 2009 (0.03 points) and 2010 (+ 0.53 points), stated the Ine and OTP. According to latest official figures, the debt was late 2010 to 93% of GDP and the deficit to 9.1% of GDP. Debts for the current year had already been detected in the first quarterly assessment conducted by representatives of the European Union and International Monetary Fund as part of the aid plan of 78 billion euros granted in Portugal May

The Portuguese government had then decided to resort to extraordinary income in order to correct a skid overall budget of about EUR 2 billion and meet the deficit target to 5.9% of GDP this year."The evidence released today reveal a serious deficiency," responded the Ministry of Finance, pointing out that it is an "isolated case" and noting that the regional government of Madeira has already asked the Lisbon helps to develop its own financial recovery program.

The second estimate published Friday by the Commerce Department, the gross domestic product (GDP) of the United States rose by 1.0% over the period April to June, against 1.3% in preliminary data.

Analysts had expected a growth rate revised to 1.1%.

"This is entirely consistent with what we expected and the slowdown was observed during the first half of the year.We expect some downward revision, which reflects the headwinds that the recovery is facing, "Judge Paul Ballew, Nationwide Insurance.

This figure revised down is mainly due to lower inventory accumulation by firms estimated initially. Companies saw their stocks increased $ 40.6 billion, against 49.6 billion according to preliminary figures, subtracting 0.23 percentage point growth rate.

GDP was also impacted by lower exports announced, with an increase of 3.1% against 6.0% in the first estimate.Imports rose 1.9% (revised from 1.3%), which has almost wiped out the contribution of foreign trade to growth, previously amounted to 0.58 percentage point.

"Net exports and stocks seem to be the big piece of this downward revision.Overall it's still consistent with a recovery very soft so these figures do not generate optimism. "

The bad news, however, have been offset by consumer spending, which reflected an increase of 0.4% (revised from 0.1%).

Final sales rose 1.2% against 1.1% in the first estimate and consensus of 1.0%, while business spending were revised up to 9.9% as against 6 3%.

The PCE price index rose 3.2% over the quarter (revised from 3.1%) after 3.9% in the first quarter. Economists surveyed had forecast 3.1% between April and JuneAs for the price index of basic ("core"), which excludes volatile items and is followed closely by the Federal Reserve, it reflects a slight lull on the inflation front with an increase of 2 , 1% (revised from 2.2%).

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel proposed Wednesday to suspend payment of structural funds and cohesion in the euro area countries unable to control their budget deficits. "In the future, payments from the Structural and Cohesion Funds should be suspended in the countries of the euro area that do not comply with the recommendations of the excessive deficit procedure," wrote the two heads of state in a letter to the President of the European Union, Herman Van Rompuy."These changes should be incorporated into new regulations for structural funds and cohesion that will be proposed for the next multiannual financial framework", ie from 2014, they continue in this letter, written at the end of the Franco German in Paris on Tuesday.

Created in the 1990s, the European Structural Funds are the main instrument of solidarity between Europeans but also for his detractors, a "bottomless pit" that engulfed wasted billions of euros. Three funds with a total of 347.4 billion euros for 2007-2013, allow the EU to grant financial aid to multiannual regional development traded between regions, Member States and Commission.The Cohesion Fund and the two structural funds, namely the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the European Social Fund (ESF), over a third of the total budget of the EU.

Among the countries in the euro area, Portugal, Greece, Spain and Italy are among the first beneficiaries of these funds. Any part of Europe whose income (GDP) is less than 75% of the EU average is subsidized is an investment in the future. The European Commission, a total of 347 billion euros, or 35.7% of the total budget of the European Union, have been allocated for regional aid policy for the period 2007-2013, 49 billion per year.

The 27 EU states, the European Commission and European Parliament are engaged in difficult negotiations to secure the budget for the period 2014-2020 and the structural funds are in the sights of several European governments. Including Germany, which grows for several months, so far without success due to lack of consensus on the subject, so that structural funds are allocated under certain conditions. The Franco-German proposal follows the lead of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who had pleaded Tuesday for sanctions against countries undisciplined budgetary matters.

If the Franco-German proposal was acted upon, the countries of the euro area with a high budget deficit as Portugal, Greece, Ireland and Italy could miss crucial European aid to improve of their infrastructure and regional development.For 2007-2013, Portugal has thus pocketing 21.5 billion euros from structural funds and cohesion, Greece 20.4 billion, Italy and Ireland 28.8 billion 901 million, according to Figures released by the Commission on its website.