Business & Financial News

List of stocks followed Friday the Paris Bourse, where the CAC 40 index lost 0.1% to 3008.86 points to 12.30, after posting a new low for the year to 2,970.10 points early trading as risk aversion is increasing in Europe, Fitch has downgraded Greece Moody's and that of several Spanish banks.

* Many CYCLIC and / or values ​​at high risk of suffering INTERNATIONAL also fears about the U.S. and Chinese growth after the publication of several unfavorable statistics.

Pernod Ricard was down 2.74%, largest drop in the CAC 40, PPR of 2.18%, 1.82% LEGRAND, and CAP GEMINI of 1.63%. The Stoxx European car sector (-1.93%) shows the largest sector decline in Europe.

* The oil services also receding in the wake of oil prices. TECHNIP loose 1.4%, 0.6% MAUREL AND PROM and CGG VERITAS 2.35%.

TF1 * still leaves 4.75%, after pressing an important technical support around 6.60 euros, according to technical analysts. Since the announcement May 15 of its withdrawal from the MSCI at the end of the month, the value lost almost 13%.

* A reverse trend, financial stocks have regained some color after the first exchange in the red, traders citing a report in the Spanish newspaper Cinco Dias that Spanish banks want a ban on sales to ; discovered. In addition, the trade commissioner, Karel De Gucht, said the European Commission and European Central Bank are working on a contingency plan in case Greece should leave the eurozone .

SOCIETE GENERALE advance of 4.75%, largest increase in the CAC 40 and SBF 120, BNP Paribas took 4.08% and Crédit Agricole, who scored early Matiné e a new record low at 2.934 euros, were up 2.73%. The Stoxx index of European banking sector sign up only in Europe (+0.4%).

* ARCELORMITTAL grants to 1.55%. The steelmaker Nucor has announced the acquisition of Skyline Steel LLC, a steel foundation, with ArcelorMittal for about $ 605 million (478 million).

* EDF, which had lost over 3% yesterday, back to 1.78%. Edison (-0.06%), which the French group is preparing to take control, has expressed interest in gas reserves off the Israeli coast.

The field of business has expanded in a broad way, and one area that is common is the business of financing people who are on paychecks. The opening in this business has grown to a greater extent, and now, people have limitless options, including one of getting payday loans online.

The euro fell to its lowest level in four months, tormented by the crisis in Greece and its possible output of the common currency. View from the seat of the ECB in Frankfurt

The euro fell below 1.27 dollars Wednesday, displayed at its lowest level in four months, following the failure of the formation of a coalition government in Greece, which worries the markets.

Wednesday at 7:00, the euro bought 1.2693 dollars, its lowest value since January 16 when he was traded again to 1.2728 dollars on Tuesday to 9:00 p.m.. The single European currency also fell against the yen, quoting 102.00 yen, its lowest level since mid-February vis-à-vis the Japanese currency. It was still worth 102.12 yen Tuesday at 2100.

Investors were worried about political instability in Greece, where new elections will take place by end June, no coalition government could not be formed at the end of negotiations following the elections on May 6

This election saw the Greeks punish the two pillars of the country's political system, the New Democracy (right) and PASOK (Socialist), because of their support for the austerity measures imposed by creditors in exchange Athens international loans needed to avoid bankruptcy the country. The party of the radical left Syriza, who focused his campaign on the rejection of rigor, came in second place on May 6 and seems to have the wind in their sails.

The political impasse has revived fears of a possible exit from the country of the euro area, the consequences seem difficult to predict. At their first joint press conference Tuesday evening, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and new French president Francois Hollande were willing "to consider additional measures for growth in Greece," if it requested. They also stated their desire that the country "remains in the euro area".

Even before the inauguration of the second Socialist president of the Fifth Republic, the president of MEDEF multiplies the signals conciliatory address.

Laurence Parisot and Francois Hollande said on Friday, already engaged in consultations with European leaders, was right to put the topic of growth on the table.

"We want to work to ensure that as soon as possible our country finds the path of sustained economic growth," she said on RMC and BFM-TV. "We have some impatience to meet the government or the president."

The chairwoman of the main French employers' organization believes, however, should not oppose this issue to that of fiscal discipline, which was one of the axes of attack of the outgoing president Nicolas Sarkozy against Francois Hollande during the presidential campaign.

"Obviously we need, all European countries today, methods, disciplines to manage our budgets," she said.

One position it defended in an interview with Les Echos, in which she wondered, however, also on how to complete the "budget package" signed in January by 25 of the 27 countries of the European Uni ; enemies by a "growth package". 

"We must also ask how to create a confidence shock that would be a growth shock without exacerbating the deficit," said the president of MEDEF. "In other words, we support a growth initiative, a 'compact growth' but not renegotiate the 'tax compact'."

It is in this context a series of proposals – hire a general review of European policies, define priorities in infrastructure to be financed by public-private partnerships or "project bonds" – bonds related to investment programs, etc..

CALL TO THE ECB AND BERLIN

"The chamber is clearly European. We join the call by Jacques Attali and Pascal Lamy for a government and an economic growth of European budget ", says she

……. .. The former collaborator of François Mitterrand and the current Director General of the World Trade Organization are deemed close to the Socialist Party

.. Laurence Parisot ……. Les Echos also develops in any argument that would not have denied the candidate Holland

. "We want Europe to have a clear doctrine and assumed in terms of competitiveness, that is better coordination between monetary policy, fiscal policies and an investment policy that could be decided at EU level, "she said. 

The chamber also wants the European Central Bank "to make sure that the euro is not so high against the dollar, which depends on interest rates but also the speech of his pre President ", and that Germany," who has no interest that the euro zone into recession, has a more cooperative approach and a policy based more on demand ".

These convergences with the program of Francois Hollande do not erase important differences, including the fate of the pension reform, corporate taxation and a possible "boost" to the minimum wage (SMIC).

But on these subjects, Laurence Parisot is rather conciliatory. She says well prepared to discuss the calculation of the minimum wage, wants the introduction of such a minimum wage in Germany and does not reject the idea of ​​framing the high salaries in the public enterprises.

CONTACT

"I can not tell you if a scale of 1 to 20 is good or not," she told BFM-TV and RMC. "But (…) I expect a lot from the President on this point (…) There is a balance to find." And estimate, again, that Francois Hollande is right to put the subject on the table, "because it is the social bond is at stake."

She confirmed on BFM TV and RMC officials that Medef already working with employees of successor Nicolas Sarkozy, who takes office Tuesday.

"I myself have met several members of the team of Francois Hollande," she added. "We are sweeping all subjects and at the same time (…) we are already working with the unions."

During the campaign, the candidate Holland announced his intention to convene in mid-July a national conference for growth and employment.

"The approach of Francois Hollande on social dialogue is very much that we have long advocated," said in Les Echos Laurence Parisot, who even considers "interesting" sound idé e of "generation contract". 

Nicolas Sarkozy, after betting on dialogue with unions to ensure social peace, has only had its share of stops during the presidential campaign to denounce the "intermediate bodies" charged tied up and threaten to appeal directly to the "people" by means of referendum.

Vallourec has revised downwards its growth forecast Thursday in turnover this year after beginning the exercise penalized by a demand remained weak markets as electrical energy and the automobile.

The producer of seamless steel tubes are now waiting for the current year to grow by about 5% of its turnover, while initially provided an increase of order of 10%.

In the first three months of the year, sales came out at 1.199 million euros, up 4% from first quarter 2011 but a contraction of 23% over the last quarter of 2011.

Its operating profit margin stood at 12.7% at end-March 2012, against 16.4% in the fourth quarter and 17.7% in Q1 2011. 

"What we see today is that the macroeconomic environment in Europe remains very uncertain and demand in markets outside oil and gas remains low," said Olivier Mallet , CFO of Vallourec in a conference call.

"(Demand) is well below our expectations at the beginning of the year," he added. "And if there was a slight rise in orders since January, it is below what was expected and visibility remains limited."

The group warned last February, on the occasion of the presentation of its annual results, expect a further decline in margin in 2012 due to the costs of de ; boot of his new plants.

Vallourec says still expect a "slight improvement" of its gross operating margin over the next three quarters, reaching a 15% margin over the full year.

At the Paris Bourse, the Vallourec share price closed before the quarterly earnings release, to 42.865 euros, up 1.46%.

French banking stocks opened sharply down Monday on the Paris Stock Exchange, after the results of parliamentary elections in Greece and the presidential election in France.

In early trade, the shares agricultural, heavily exposed to Greece because of its local subsidiary Emporiki weighed down by losses, falling nearly 6%.

BNP Paribas and Societe Generale fell by more than 3.5%, underperforming the European banking index down by 1.18% at the same time. 

In Greece, voters, angered by the recession and austerity, were heavily penalized Sunday the two main parties, New Democracy (ND, right) and the Party Socialist (PASOK), and offered to the radical left a spectacular breakthrough in the risk of boosting debt crisis and questions about maintaining their country in the euro area.

In France, Socialist Francois Hollande, who plans to reform the banking system to protect customer deposits and make the market less risky activities, has won Sunday's presidential election, marking the return of the left in power.

The Belgian economy has resumed growth in the first quarter and was not in recession in the second half of 2011 contrary to what was originally advertised, showed particular are released Wednesday.

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew 0.3% over the first three months of the year compared to last quarter. In annual terms, sales rose 0.5%, announced the Belgian central bank.

In the fourth quarter of 2011, the Belgian economy shrank by 0.1%.

However, the central bank has revised its figures for the third quarter GDP, from -0.1% initially announced, to no growth (0.0%).

This means that Belgium did not ultimately experienced a recession, defined as "technical" recession establishes that at least two consecutive quarters of GDP contraction.

In 2011, Belgium recorded an annual growth of 2%, against an initial estimate of 1.9%.

GDP figures for the euro area for the first quarter will be published May 15, along with those of Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands. 

In the fourth quarter of 2011, the GDP of the eurozone declined by 0.3%.

Wall Street opened slightly lower Monday, threatening to end a streak of four consecutive sessions of gains in a context of renewed tensions in Europe and mixed U.S. data es.

In early trade, the Dow dropped 0.07% to 13,218.93 points. The Standard & Poor's, wider, yielding 0.27% to 1,399.59 points points while the Nasdaq composite lost 0.22% to 3062.58 points.

The announcement on Monday's return to recession in Spain has revived fears about the sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone.

"The market took a break while a busy week looms in statistics," said Andre Bakhos at Lek Securities.

The U.S. household spending rose less than expected 0.3% in March while their incomes have emerged up 0.4%, according to statistics released by the De ; Department of Commerce.

Investors will also monitor the publication in the afternoon of the index of purchasing managers in manufacturing PMI in the Chicago area. 

Last week, the S & P has aligned four sessions in a row in the green due to good earnings reports of companies, who brought the index close to balance in April. He declined, however, still 0.4% on the month, poised to sign a fifth consecutive month of decline.

Values, Apple fell by 1.3% and Google was down slightly from 0.06%. Both groups could include the Dow Jones Industrial Average in the context of a revision of the index, joining the elite 30 companies at the expense of more traditional companies like Alcoa Inc. (-0.7%), Barron's said Sunday.

The title of Barnes & Noble jumped over 11% in early trade after Microsoft announced it would invest $ 300 million in university activities and digital chain libraries.

Bad news on the economic front: the activity in the services sector began to turn to contract and morale deteriorates entrepreneur. The recovery will be anemic. French executives come to the business district of La Defense

The significant recovery announced by Nicolas Sarkozy is struggling to emerge. Instead, the slump continues, whether in industry or in services. The private sector activity has indeed registered the largest decline since 6 months, according to a first estimate of the PMI index released Monday by the firm Markit. The index "flash" composite of overall activity in France has contracted from 48.7 points in March to 46.8 points in April, below the 50 points that mark a contraction in activity. This decline reflects a sharp deterioration in performance of the services sector, whose activity fell for the first time in five months.  

The French industrial morale has degraded him in April compared with the previous month, according to the business survey released Monday by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE). The composite indicator of business climate in the industry fell 95 points, against 98 in March and remains below its long-term average set at 100 points.

"Here we have throughout the disappointing figures, downright disappointing side of the PMI surveys," summed Baudchon Helena, economist at BNP Paribas of France. Details of the survey by INSEE in March, which marked a rebound of industrial morale, "let hope for a continued recovery," said she. "I expected better than this: the confirmation of a rebound in confidence of business leaders," adds his colleague Societe Generale, Michael Martinez.  

The overall indicator of business climate in France, INSEE calculated from the responses of CEOs of major industries, is itself almost unchanged in April, to 95 points, with a decline in the building, an increase in retail trade and a stable indicator in services.

An anemic recovery

"In total, still manages to defend the idea that the French economy is now rebounding from a low point that has been the fourth quarter and first quarter. But the strength of this rebound is very very low, "says Mr. Martinez, who expects a decline of 0.1% of GDP in the first quarter, followed by an increase of 0.1% in the second.  

According to Jack Kennedy, the firm Markit economist, "the second quarter of 2012 will be difficult for the French economy, the service activity in April showing a decline in concern while a decline in manufacturing persists." He perceives a "wait and widespread household as businesses at the approach of the presidential election".

An argument that refutes Ms. Baudchon, for whom "the external economic and financial environment always difficult is a good explanation of the new shift in the PMI surveys in France and Germany".

Sector by sector in the industry, the survey by INSEE mask disparities and it appears that the decline is mainly due to the vehicle with the past activity "would have contracted sharply" and metallurgy.  

A table overshadowed by the automobile?

The overall order books and foreign French carmakers are down sharply while that "given the personal perspectives of production, the activity could fall further in coming months," said INSEE.

"Outside the car, which suffers from the end of certain tax provisions and the European context with overproduction on a European scale, we nevertheless confirmed that production recovered slightly and the personal perspectives of production are well oriented ", says Mr. Martinez.

U.S. stocks finished mostly slightly higher Friday, the Dow Jones having received solid results from several big names such rating Microsoft, General Electric and McDonald's, but the downturn in the technology sector weighed on the Nasdaq.

The Dow Jones industrials gained 30 0.5%, or 65.16 points, to 13,029.26. The S & P-500, wider, took 1.61 points, or 0.12%, to 1378.53.

The Nasdaq Composite, however, yielded 7.11 points (0.24%) to 3000.45, weighed down by including SanDisk, which dropped more than 11% after a warning on its sales business. The decline of Apple (-2.46%) also weighed.

For the week, the Nasdaq fell 0.4%, but the Dow Jones rose 1.4% and the S & P 500 0.6%, encouraged by the good start of the earnings season.

Of the 121 companies in the S & P 500 having reported their quarterly on the date of Friday, 81% exceeded Wall Street expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Microsoft has topped the Dow Jones gains, surging 4.5% Thursday after reporting a profit above the consensus, PC sales are e , as revealed better than expected.

SanDisk has dropped 11.27% to 35.91 dollars. The memory manufacturer has said it expected a revenue well below Wall Street expectations in the second quarter due to lower prices in the sector.

In its wake, the index of the semiconductor sector fell 2.38% on the session. Apple has lost 2.46% to 572.98 dollars.

SEASON RESULTS STILL GOOD

General Electric closed up 1.1%. The first American industrial conglomerate reported earnings and sales better than expected first quarter thanks to strong demand for energy equipment Ticks and railway equipment.

McDonald's took 0.7%. The world's number one fast food has published quarterly results rise, driven by strong sales in its restaurants in the United States.

"Yesterday there was some concern to see McDonald's to miss the consensus, but he reached out and showed strong sales growth at stores constant. GE beat expectations. Overall the earnings season continues to be good, "said Peter Jankovskis for Oakbrook Investments LLC.

The industrial conglomerate Honeywell International has published its quarterly results next up and has revised upwards its annual financial targets. The stock closed up 2.4% to 59.39 dollars.

Schlumberger took 2.7%. The oil services group published the first-quarter net profit up 39% to $ 1.31 billion, or 97 cents per share.

A Wall Street as on the European stock exchanges, investors awaited further reassurance on the capabilities of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to raise new funds to contain the crisis euro area.

The Group of Twenty (G20) is committed in the evening to give the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over $ 430 billion of additional resources, making more than double its capacity loan.

The Defense Ministry said Tuesday it has given to the supplier Thales the first tranche, amounting to 263 million euros, an equipment contract of the French army in next-generation tactical radios from 2018.

The radios of the "Contact" will allow simultaneous transmission and highly secure voice and data for the infantry and armor, the ministry said in a statement.

In a second step, these positions also equip combat aircraft, intelligence and transportation and vessels.

The first installment, devoted to development work, will be notified at Thales Communications in the coming days, the ministry added. 

The contract, which is part of Scorpio French military modernization, especially equip future multi-role armored vehicles (VMBR) called to replace the current armored vehicles ahead (VAB).

According to Le Figaro, the contract of three to four billion euros in total over a period of 22 years had been approved by the Ministry of Defence, but that's the Economy ' objected to the notification of an important contract in its presidential campaign, prompting Prime Minister Francois Fillon to rule in favor of the project.

The Defense Ministry was not immediately available to comment on this point.