News – Business & Economi

Wall Street has ended in the red Wednesday after a volatile session, thus showing its fourth consecutive decline and its sixth in seven meetings, the concerns raised by the debt crisis of the euro area continued to haunt investors.

The Dow Jones Industrial 30 yielded 0.26%, or 33.45 points, to 12,598.55. The S & P-500, wider, lost 5.86 points, or 0.44%, to 1324.80. The Nasdaq Composite fell on its side of 19.72 points (-0.68%) to 2,874.04.

Although Germany has tried to calm things down on Greece, saying she wanted to stabilize the country in the eurozone, the European Central Bank (ECB) has renewed concerns in said to have ceased to provide liquidity to certain Greek banks due to their under-capitalization.

The Greek authorities have in turn reported massive withdrawals made by the citizens of their bank accounts because of economic and political uncertainties. 

The questions about the future of Greece and possible implications for the euro area a country's output of the Economic and Monetary Union weighed on equity markets in recent weeks, with an S & P 500 has lost some 5.5% since late March.

The fact that, according to the minutes of its last meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee, the Federal Reserve remains open to new measures to support the economy has little impact on sentiment of market participants.

These have not benefited from more macroeconomic indicators rather positive, with one hand a higher-than-expected housing starts in April and the other , a stronger than expected rebound in industrial production. 

As for values, General Electric took 3.268% to 19.00 dollars after the division of financial conglomerate has received permission to resume the transfer of part of its profits to its parent.

GE Capital provides and to pay a special dividend of $ 4.5 billion in General Electric during the year.

The title J.C. Penney has plunged 19.72% to 26.75 dollars, its biggest daily drop in percentage terms since 1987, a day after the distributor has suspended payment of a dividend and announced results showing that its transformation implementation has more impact than expected on its activity.

Also in the distribution sector, the title has pros Target 0.44% to 55.32 dollars after the group specialized in low-cost stores raised its annual forecast .

Facebook will increase by almost a quarter the size of its IPO and could now raise up to $ 16 billion (12.6 billion euros), the strong investor demand obscuring the dice ; beats on long-term profitability of the social network.

Free business cards is an innovation that is a boon to any businessperson who is on a budget. And don't think that because you're on a budget and the business cards are free that they look cheap.

The Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson resigned Sunday because of a controversy over a fake university degree in computer science listed on his resume.

This is the third time in as many years as the head changes its internet portal.

Yahoo also gave three director seats at a hedge fund run by Daniel Loeb, who should be well positioned to influence the group's strategy.

Scott Thompson was replaced on an interim basis by Ross Levinson, current director of worldwide media division, Yahoo said in a statement.

It's Third Point hedge fund of Daniel Loeb, who discovered the falsification of the CV of Scott Thompson. This company owns 5.8% stake in Yahoo.

The departure of the CEO only four months after taking office should re-questioning the future of Yahoo, which is struggling to revive its growth face stiff competition from groups like Google or Facebook.

On April 10, Yahoo announced its reorganization into three divisions – "consumer", "regions" and "technology", which was one of the first strong measures by Scott Thompson , arrived at the beginning of the year at the helm of the company.

The European Commission on Friday gave the green light to unconditional takeover of Edison by EDF Italian electricity.

"In a decision dated May 10, 2012, the European Commission has approved without conditions the acquisition of sole control by EDF Edison under the European regulations on the control of concentrations, "said the EU executive said in a statement.

"This decision raises the condition precedent to the completion of this transaction related to obtaining permission from the relevant competition authorities," added the Commission. 

Upon publication of its turnover, Thursday, EDF said it has completed the first quarter of the takeover of Edison, for which the French electricity has increased to 0.89 its offer per share to minority shareholders. This new proposal represented for him a net additional cost of 25 million euros.

Incumbent President warns that Europe is still recovering and that if France relaxed its efforts to reduce the deficit, it would suffer the same fate as Spain. During a meeting place de la Concorde in Paris, Sunday, April 15, Nicolas Sarkozy called for the ECB to support European growth.

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 Spanish Minister of Economy admitted on Monday that the country had fallen into recession for the second time since 2009, as investors demanded higher yields to buy debt securities the country.

Official figures on gross domestic product (GDP) of the Spanish first quarter of 2012 will not be published before April 30. The Minister of Economy, Luis de Guindos, however, said that the Spanish economy should be in the first quarter contraction similar to the last quarter of 2011, which was 0.3 % over the third quarter.

Two successive quarters of declining GDP correspond to the technical definition of recession, which was widely anticipated in Spain.

According to the minister, who gave an interview to El Mundo, the decline will however not as serious as feared.

"If you had asked me this question two months ago, I would have thought the first quarter of 2012 would have been much worse than the last quarter of last year. But this does not happen, "said Luis de Guindos

" For now, I see a first quarter like the last quarter of last year. "

These words fall in line with other recent statements by government members, suggesting Spain is in recession again

. The rightwing government of Mariano Rajoy has committed to undertake significant budget cuts. But, the markets, there is concern growing that the recession makes it impossible to goals of deficits and that Spain should seek international assistance in one form or another, to ; like Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

Yields of Spanish debt to ten years have passed Monday morning above 6% for the first time since the beginning of the year, while the Spanish CDS reached new records.

CRISIS MODE

"We returned a crisis mode," said Lyn Graham Taylor, a specialist rates to Rabobank. "It seems increasingly likely that Spain would have to resort to some form of rescue. If there is no intervention (ECB), there will be no ceiling to Spanish yields . They will just keep climbing. "

The Spanish economy is in contraction or stagnation since the bursting of the real estate to ; re in 2008. While housing prices are still falling, the survival of some banks and the new government's ability to control its finances are subject to debate.

The Popular Party (PP), which won elections in November against the Socialists in place, has taken a number of measures to reduce the deficit Spanish, one of the highest the euro area.

But confidence in the ability of President Mariano Rajoy of the Government to work within budgetary limits of the euro area was tested when the head Government has unilaterally lowered the deficit target in 2012 beginning in March, which was strongly up the risk premium on Spanish debt. 

The Minister of Economy also said that the government would take further measures to help small and medium enterprises solvent to obtain credit from banks.

Moreover, the government could get involved in finances too spendthrift regions as early as May, said on Monday with the government.

If Spain has largely missed its target deficit for 2011 is largely due to the expense of regions. The 17 Spanish autonomous regions must reduce its public deficit to 1.5% of GDP in 2012, against 2.9% last year.

A law is being voted in parliament to give the central government the power to punish regions that did not comply with the objectives of deficit narrowed.

Wall Street opened Friday declined amid concerns related to persistent budgetary situation of Spain and slowing growth in China.

In early trade, the Dow Jones dropped 0.46% to 12,890.00 points. The Standard & Poor's, wider, yielding 0.47% to 1,379.40 while the Nasdaq composite retreated 0.48% to 2725.50.

Performance of public debt to 10 years Spain has exceeded 5.9% after the publication by the ECB shows that Spanish banks have been steadily increasing their borrowing at the ECB in March.

Moreover, the gross domestic product (GDP) of China rose 8.1% annual rate in the first quarter, the lowest figure recorded in nearly three years.

"The number of Chinese GDP is weaker than expected while anyone had used it as pretext to rise yesterday," said Peter Boockvar, equity strategist for Miller Tabak & Co. 

Bank stocks are also oriented downward despite better than expected results published by JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo.

Both titles lose respectively 1.18% and 1.88%.

Google also declined, its quarterly earnings above the consensus being overshadowed by a further deterioration in the profitability of its advertising links. The action gives up 2.8%.

Total accelerates its fall Tuesday afternoon in Paris Bourse, in a climate of growing concern about the consequences of the gas leak occurred Sunday on its platform of Elgin-Franklin North Sea.

At 4:16 p.m., the action of the oil giant posted the largest decline in the CAC 40, yielding 6.57% to 38.31 euros, its lowest level in three months. The title acknowledges its biggest drop since December 2008 and saw its market capitalization and nearly melted almost six billion euros.

Total, by far the highest weight of the ACC, led the Paris index, which yielded 0.68% while the other major European markets were stable and the sector index Europé in commodities advanced 0.53%.

At this stage, investors are more concerned about the impact of leakage on the group's production and its consequences on the environment and the prudent play while waiting to get an idea pre Cise of the magnitude of the disaster.

"Investors apply the precautionary principle in a situation still uncertain, in memory with the recent accident that affected BP," said Romain Burnand, co-director of Moneta Asset Management. 

The explosion and sinking and the Deepwater Horizon, in the Gulf of Mexico, eleven had died in April 2010. Some 4.9 million barrels of crude oil had escaped from the Macondo well, drilled on behalf of the "major" British Petroleum. After the disaster, BP had lost more than 52% of its stock value in less than two months.

"With the memory of Macondo, the market remains very nervous about this kind of news until the problem is not quantified," says one trader.

"This event will impact Total's production and creates a risk of pollution, limited at this stage, but not yet identified," he says, noting that the group is still undecided in his faç ; we deal with the incident.

TWO OPTIONS

Total has indeed explained explore all possible options to deal with the gas leak on the platform Elgin-Franklin, including drilling a relief well, an operation that could take six months.

"There are two options for intervention. One is to drill a relief well, which could take about six months. The other is an intervention on the platform to seal the well (…) what would be a faster option, "he told Reuters David Hainsworth, safety manager, health and environment at Total Exploration & Production UK

. "We plan to decide on a course in the coming days," he In addition to mobilizing added

. 10 to 20 engineers, the group has engaged the services of Wild Well Control, society that occurred during the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010

. Total said Monday it has stopped production and have evacuated its staff on site (238 people), after the leak occurred Sunday. 

The platform was producing nine million cubic meters of gas per day, equivalent to 3% of UK production of natural gas and 60,000 barrels per day of light crude.

The gas cloud that formed around the platform, located off Scotland to 240 kilometers east of Aberdeen, has forced Shell to evacuate employees of two neighboring platforms for safety reasons.

The leak has formed a cloud dense enough to be visible to other platforms in the North Sea. Shell has decided to suspend, as a precaution, to drill on one of them.

The environmental consequences of leakage of natural gas condensates are much less serious than those of oil spills, has informed the British Minister of Energy.

An exclusion zone of sea and air, however, was declared around the platform, said Total.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange closed up 0.44% Thursday, a weaker yen supporting market sentiment and risk appetite without the Nikkei manages to surpass the 9,600 points .

The Nikkei gained 41.57 points to 9,595.57 and the Topix broader took 3.95 points (0.48%) to 829.35.

CGT plant ArcelorMittal proposes to transform the site into electric arc furnace. Since its closure, Grandrange is regularly pointed to by the left as one of the failures of Nicolas Sarkozy.

CGT plant at ArcelorMittal Gandrange (Moselle) presented Friday a draft EAF, which the union could "save" the site where a mill still operates steel supplied from Germany. "We offer ArcelorMittal to invest 120 million euros in the construction of an electric furnace to supply the local mill," said Jacky Mascelli to reporters, one of the leaders of the CGT at the factory Grandrange. "To produce the steel that we now come to Duisburg (Germany), we propose to use the scrap produced in the region, notably by the automotive industry," he said.  

For the CGT, the factory "integrated" (steelmaking-continuous casting-rolling) "will guarantee the sustainability of the site Gandrange" which still employ about 350 steelworkers, against more than 1,000 before the closure of the steelworks in March 2009 . The project presented Friday by the CGT looks like that the union had presented in March 2008 and which already provided for the construction of an electric oven "scrap all" to enhance the mill crowns and bars Gandhinagar, one of the only active for long products in Europe. The draft will now be "carried" by the Left Front, several representatives were present Friday in Lorraine.

Since its closure, the steelworks Grandrange is regularly pointed to by the left as one of the failures of the quinquennium of Nicolas Sarkozy. February 4, 2008, following his marriage to Carla Bruni and after a highly publicized visit to the factory Moselle, the president pledged to support the state "all or part of investment required "to keep the mill operating.

PPR said Thursday a sharp increase in its annual results, driven by the brilliant performances of its luxury brands, and was confident for 2012.

"The results of PPR are excellent and we are confident for 2012," said chief financial officer, Jean-François Palus, during a conference call.

The group that owns Gucci, Puma, Fnac and Redcats, saw sales increase by 11.1% last year to 12.23 billion euros, a figure slightly higher Interior to the Reuters poll of 12.13 billion. At constant exchange rates, sales growth stood at 9.3%.

The increase in turnover has been hampered by the poor performance against the Fnac, whose sales fell 3.6%, while those in the luxury division jumped 22.2 % and that of Puma significantly accelerated (10.5%).

On luxury, the CFO said that January sales were as good or better than those of the fourth quarter, which signed an organic growth of 18.6%, significantly exceeded expectations of analysts polled by Reuters (17%).

The annual operating profit rose 17% to 1.60 billion euros, slightly above consensus ($ 1.55 billion). 

For 2012, the group said anticipating growth "supported" by its turnover and a further increase in its results.

PPR accounts no longer include figures of Redcats, a subsidiary of distance selling, nor those of FNAC in Italy, these assets are to be sold and which, under accounting standards be deconsolidated from the perimeter.

Net income, up 26.4% in spring 1.05 billion euros and the proposed dividend is unchanged at 3.50 euros.