News – Business & Economi

Facebook knows the title of early febrile Friday on the Nasdaq, the title having erased its gains in early trade, falling to its IPO price before going up .

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.

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GDP in the euro area has stagnated in the first quarter after falling 0.3% last quarter. But the performance of different countries are very different.

Based on preliminary estimates released Tuesday by the European office of statistics to Eurostat, the euro area recorded no growth (0.0%) during the first three months of the year, after a decline in GDP of 0.3 % last quarter. This figure, better than expected by analysts (-0.2%), allows the euro area narrowly escaped the recession, which is recognized when GDP shrinks for two consecutive quarters. But mostly he hides significant disparities between countries in the euro area: while Germany saw its GDP grow by 0.5%, exceeding all expectations, thanks to exports and consumption, France experienced no growth (0%) and Italy sank into recession (-0.8%).

The Netherlands has also experienced poor performance (-0.2%). As for Greece, she recorded a fall in GDP of 6.2% in the first quarter, according to preliminary official estimate.

These differences show that "the region remains highly dependent on Germany," said Jennifer McKeown of Capital Economics. "A big thank you to progress better than expected German GDP," added Martin Van Vliet of Ing.  

Figures released Tuesday should at least contribute to the debate on growth in Europe, a topic that has emerged slowly while facing austerity, especially under the leadership of French President Francois Hollande.

The latter reiterated its position on the issue during his inauguration speech Tuesday morning at the Elysee Palace. "To our partners, I will propose a new pact that will combine the necessary reduction of public debt with the necessary stimulus," he said. "To overcome the crisis that afflicts it," he said, "Europe needs projects, it needs solidarity, it needs for growth."

The subject should be central to its discussions on Tuesday afternoon in Berlin with Chancellor Angela Merkel, the main advocate of fiscal discipline in Europe, who reluctantly welcomed his proposal to add a growth component in the European budgetary treaty. How to revive European growth will also constitute the main theme of the dinner which will bring together European leaders in Brussels on May 23

The Italian leader, Mario Monti, proposed last week to "unite people of good will" to ensure that it is "compatible" with fiscal consolidation. He is scheduled to meet Tuesday in Brussels with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, whose proposals for growth (increased resources for the European Investment Bank, finance major European projects, tax on financial transactions , better use of EU funds) are widely shared by Mr. Holland.

European leaders will anyway have to be proactive to defy predictions of analysts. To Martin Van Vliet, there is "no evidence of strong and sustained economic rebound on the horizon for the euro area".

As for Howard Archer, IHS Global Insight, thinks that "a contraction of GDP will likely be on the menu in the second quarter." Although a gradual return to growth is expected later this year, "a further escalation of the debt crisis, not counting an output of Greece (the euro area), could derail the expected recovery," puts cautioned Mr. Van Vliet.

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.

At nearly $ 120 million, a version of "Scream" by Edvard Munch became a work of art the most expensive ever sold at auction. Sale by the businessman Norwegian Petter Olsen, identity is unknown to the buyer. The sale of the Munch allowed Sotheby's to beat its previous record for an evening auction of impressionist and modern art.

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.

U.S. stocks open on a technical rebound Wednesday after five sessions of losses on the S & P 500, investors seemed encouraged by the results published by the giant Alcoa aluminum, the first of the season.

In early trade, the Dow Jones gained 0.8% or 103 points to 12,822 points. The Standard & Poor's, wider, takes more than 1% or 14.10 points to 1372.81 points while the Nasdaq composite was ahead by 0.9% (26.61 points) to 3017, 80 points.

Alcoa wins over 7%. The group, considered a good barometer of the U.S. industrial sector, has emerged, to everyone's surprise, a positive net income in first quarter 2012, the for improved market conditions.

The Prosecutor General of the Supreme Court has definitively cancel the condemnation of Total over 12 years near the wreck of the tanker Erika off the Brittany coast in 1999, which caused ; a major ecological disaster.

This 24-year-old ship broke in two on 12 December 1999 in a storm and sank, spilling 20,000 tonnes of fuel on 400 km of the Breton coast, killing dozens thousands of birds and ravaging the seabed.

The prosecution based its opinion on the fact that the disaster has not occurred in French waters but "exclusive economic zone" (EEZ), and that the ship flew the Maltese flag, which would remove any possibility of prosecution in criminal justice. 

The Court of Cassation, the highest French court, which will meet May 24 and will make the final decision after a deliberate, however, is not bound to follow the opinion of floor, reading was revealed by Liberation and Ouest-France.

The public prosecutor asked the permanent cancellation without retrial, the conviction for "marine pollution" of the first French company announced after two die decisions at first instance and on appeal in 2008 in 2010.

In addition to the Total group, sentenced to a fine of 375,000 euros, Rina, the Italian maritime regulatory body which gave its airworthiness certificate to the ship (175.000 euro fine), Giuseppe Savarese, a former Italian owner of the ship, and Antonio Pollara, Italian former manager of the Erika (75,000 euro fine each) were convicted in appeal.

The lower courts have so far retained the right of other interpretations. The plaintiffs believe that the French territory was hit by the effects of the offense is sufficient to render the French competent judges.

THE ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE IN DANGER

The floor of the Court of Cassation also recommends abandoning the notion of "environmental damage" introduced in 2008 by the trial judgment that can demand compensation for environmental damage , as well as for moral harm, economic or property.

After a review of the complex thicket of international conventions governing shipping, the prosecutor's office believes it is impossible to legalize this notion. 

Corinne Lepage, one of the lawyers of the plaintiffs and former environment minister, said that it was here that a notice and hoped that the Court would not follow him.

"It would be a double disaster legal, not for the common (…) but in terms of law in general because it means that charterers could continue to take as Total boat was rotten like the Erika for reasons of pure greed and polluting the coast without nothing happens, "she said on RTL. 

NO EFFECT ON PAYMENTS

The folder is marked from the beginning by a very complex debate, shipping is governed by a series of international conventions and national laws very bushy, with idé e general far as the charterer of a tanker is in principle not liable criminally or civilly.

The Court of Appeal had also, on this point, not fully completed the first judgment, concluding that Total was guilty but not criminally responsible civilly.

This point has not had an immediate effect because Total has already paid in 2009 without possible cancellation of 170 192 500 000 compensation ordered in the first instance in 2008, 153 for the state. Rina has paid the surplus, and an "extension" decided on appeal where the total bill rose to 200.6 million euros.

Total said it would ask for a refund, whatever the final decision to the Supreme Court, where lawyers of some 80 civil parties, municipalities, regions, departments and advocacy groups the environment will plead.

French society has always said he was the victim of a "hidden defect" of the boat, never a thesis accepted by the court. 

Given another 200 million euros paid by the company in 1999, including the cleaning of beaches and pumping oil from the wreck, the total bill to stu ve for it to nearly 400 million euros, an amount limited compared with the annual profit of nearly $ 12 billion company.

ArcelorMittal said Tuesday it was extending indefinitely the closure of the voltaic arc furnace from its site of Schifflange Luxembourg, which has 282 employees.

The world's number one steel explained his decision by the depressed construction market in Western Europe, which are for products Schifflange, and said he could see no sign of significant improvement since the crisis that hit the area at the end of 2008.

Schifflange site specializes in the production of long carbon steel.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced earlier this month that ArcelorMittal would restart a blast furnace of its French site Florange (Moselle). But the group had then stated that it would be restarted in case of economic recovery.

Nisshin Steel will acquire Nippon Metal Industry as part of a stock deal valued at $ 180 million (136 million euros) to create the number two Japanese stainless steel The Japanese steel industry consolidating domestic market face a sullen and intense foreign competition.

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.

The main European stock markets opened on a rebound Friday in the wake of Wall Street and Asian markets, investors anticipating an abundant liquidity injection of long-term European Central Bank (ECB) the next week.

Around 9:15, the Paris Bourse gaining 0.53% to 3,465 points, Frankfurt and London takes 0.86% 0.18% advance. The pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 index rose 0.62%.

In Paris, Technicolor was down almost 5% after the announcement of an EBITDA down 5.9% in 2011 to 475 million euros. The action is Eiffage it head increases the SBF 120, the construction group has forecast a rise in net profit in 2012 after declining in 2011.

Banks are among the highest increases in Europe sector (0.86%). Deutsche Bank and Barclays gained 2.8% 1.4%. The Paris BNP Paribas and Societe Generale gaining 1.4% and 1.9%.

Lloyds Banking Group ahead by 1.3% after yet warned that its net banking income would decline in 2012, suffering, like his counterpart Royal Bank of Scotland, a heavy loss in 2011.

BASF takes 2.8% after announcing Friday that its results and its turnover increase this year thanks to a rebound in the second half.

Many analysts believe the weakness of the European economy will force the ECB to continue easing its monetary policy. The market is expected to lend some 500 billion euros to banks at its second financing package to three years scheduled for next week.

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.