Business & Financial News

The Chinese government will send next year a delegation of Chinese investors in Europe to acquire companies. Nicolas Sarkozy and Hu Jintao in Beijing, April 28, 2010. French President visited China for the inauguration of the Expo.

The Chinese government will send next year a delegation of Chinese investors in Europe to "buy European companies," said Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming, quoted Tuesday by the newspaper Global Times. "China wants to invest its large trade surplus and will not hold billions of dollars that depreciate," said Chen Deming Monday at a conference in Beijing."We are prepared to further open our market, for example the financial sector, but other savings should in turn be more open to our place," he said, always cited by the Global Times.

The paper does not specify the countries that the Chinese delegation will visit, or the composition of the delegation, or the amount or nature of such acquisitions. China holds huge reserves, which exceeded the end of September 3200 billion. She had invested the same date of $ 1.148 billion in U.S. Treasury bills while according to experts, it holds more than 550 billion sovereign debt of European countries.

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.

Wall Street opened the session sharply down Monday after four consecutive weeks of gains, including a fold related to the decline in commodity prices, hurt by the strong dollar.

In early trade, the Dow Jones lost 1.05% to 12.10,05 points.

The growth in world oil demand will grow less than expected in 2011 and will accelerate next year, predicted Wednesday the U.S. Agency for Energy Information (EIA).

The EIA, which has already significantly reduced its forecast last month, has not made this time only a small adjustment with growth forecast revised down 50,000 barrels per day (bpd).

The agency now predicts an increase in demand of 1.32 million bpd to 88.4 million bpd this year and an increase of 1.44 million bpd in 2012.

These figures are higher than the predictions of the International Energy Agency, based in Paris, which expects growth of only 1.25 million bpd.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has plans to increase the demand limited to 880,000 bpd in 2011 and an increase of 1.19 million bpd next year.

The EIA notes that if the supply of oil is still subject to a number of uncertainties, which she attributed to the instability in the Middle East, demand will continue to be penalized by the jolting of the economy.

"The downside risks dominate as fears continue to weigh on the pace of global recovery, the debt crisis continues in the European Union and other governments still face the challenge of deficits," said the EIA in its report.

The Belgian, French and Luxembourg governments reaffirmed at the end of a meeting held in Brussels this Sunday afternoon in solidarity in the search for a solution that ensures the future of Franco-Belgian bank Dexia.

In a statement released by the office of Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme, they say, give their full support to the proposals of management of the banking group, which will be presented at a Board of Directors scheduled at 15:00 in Brussels.

"The proposed solution, which is also the result of intense consultations with all relevant partners, will be presented to the Board of Directors of Dexia which is responsible for approving the proposals," said Yves Leterme.

The activities of the Franco-Belgian bank, first bank in size in Europe to be a victim of the crisis of sovereign debt in the euro zone could be split and the most risky assets confined to a separate structure.

An official with the International Monetary Fund said Wednesday that if any institution could buy bonds Spanish and Italian, along with the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) prior to distance himself a little later with this idea.

Antonio Borges, Director of the IMF's European Department, said at a news conference that the IMF "might even invest with the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF).We would definitely ready to play this role. "

Greater involvement of the IMF in attempts to resolve the debt crisis in the euro area could reassure some investors who feel it is out of control.

"The investments we would do in Spain or Italy would be based on the certainty that these countries are on track, they are solvent and to take all necessary measures," said Antonio Borges.

"Because the EFSF now has the opportunity to invest in secondary markets, we could invest with him, to support the debt markets in Italy and Spain with an additional element of credibility," he said.

Later, Antonio Borges, issued a statement saying he wanted to "clarify some comments earlier held" by saying that the IMF could act directly on the bond markets.

"The IMF can only offer our resources to countries, it can not be used to intervene directly in the bond markets. We do no involvement in the market with the EFSF," said he.

The EFSF, with 440 billion euros, is seen as not sufficiently abundant in case of worsening of the crisis.And European officials are already thinking about increasing its response capacity through leverage.

ECB must remain active in the bond market-BORGES

At the press conference before his release correcting his remarks, Antonio Borges had said he wanted to wait for the ratification of the new powers of EFSF before further action by the IMF.

The IMF could go further and invest directly in bonds in Italy and Spain and for this he will have to create an investment vehicle specific, had said Antonio Borges.

He also felt that the European Central Bank should remain active in the bond market to help stabilize it, even after strengthening the powers of the European Financial Stability Fund, the EFSF.

ECB buys government bonds Spain and Italy on the secondary market since August to prevent the cost of borrowing in these countries do not rise to prohibitive levels.

The ECB considers that this action is somehow an extension of its monetary policy decisions.But many economists believe the central bank in the euro zone will no longer intervene in the market when the EFSF will feature its new powers including the purchase of debt on the secondary market.

"The ECB has a very important role to play in restoring market stability in Europe," said the director of the IMF's European department, Antonio Borges, at a press conference. "It is not possible to have a monetary union with the debt markets of extraordinary instability, as is the case today."

It is not, says the IMF, the spendthrifts save states, but to smooth out market fluctuations."A steady market intervention to stabilize the conditions would be most appropriate," said Antonio Borges.

Governments in the euro area might consider a way to make such operations more acceptable to the ECB, whose statutes forbid it to fund government.

"If that means give the ECB some degree of support from finance ministries across Europe, in order to provide additional comfort to make it easier, we would certainly very happy to see that happen, "said Antonio Borges.

"There are several ways to do so. This could simply be guaranteed by several ministries of finance, this could be the EFSF, there are many possibilities.The most important thing is to make it easier for the ECB to stabilize a presence in the markets, "he added.

UBS has relieved the market by announcing Tuesday that it still anticipates a modest net profit for its third quarter despite the loss of $ 2.3 billion due to unauthorized transactions a dishonest broker in London.

This estimate includes the cost of 400 million francs (329 million) in restructuring charges, said in a statement the number one bank in Switzerland.

UBS had announced in late August that it intended to eliminate almost 3,500 jobs to save about two billion francs by the end of 2013.

Net new money from wealth management activities should be comparable to the second quarter, the bank added.It recognizes that fraud will impact slightly the BIS tier 1 ratio, but qualifies its position as capital of "solid".

The action of UBS sells 0.99% to 9.99 francs at 10:42, while the Swiss blue chip index lost 1.39% and the index of European bank leaves 3.25%.

UBS was able to register gains on own credit related financial commitments at fair value at 1.5 billion francs.These contributions are "essentially attributable to widening credit spreads during the third quarter," said the establishment.

In addition, the bank recorded a gain on the sale of treasury investments of close to 700 million francs in Swiss Bank & Wealth Management.

Between April and June inflows into the wealth management had reached 5.6 billion, down by half compared to 11.1 billion in the first quarter.

UBS said Tuesday that the estimates had been made at an early stage of the procedure for closing the accounts.The bank, which will release its third quarter results on Oct. 25, said no new update was expected before then.

"Finally a nice surprise after a flood of negative news", analysts said the bank Wegelin in their fax in the morning.But they also believe that the bank will roll up their sleeves to restore confidence.

Sabine Bohn, an analyst at DZ Bank, agrees: "We appreciate that the net inflows are similar to those in the second quarter but we remain cautious, because the loss due to fraud and the resignation of CEO Oswald Grübel resulted in a big loss of confidence. "

Dirk Becker at Kepler Capital Markets, is more cautious: "It is too early to become positive to UBS, while resizing the investment bank will certainly create friction and unforeseen problems."

A new week promises to be tense on Wall Street, where investors are worried about a possible erosion of corporate earnings against the backdrop of the debt crisis in Europe and slowing Chinese economy.

The U.S. stock markets fell more than 2% Friday, signing the third quarter of their worst quarterly performance in three years, and some fear that the benefits of big names backed out because the rating is supported by foreign demand.

Past two years, export sales have averaged 30% of the turnover of listed companies in the S & P 500, allowing the results of many of them to exceed the expectations of analysts.

"If the euro falls, it will have a huge negative impact on companies like McDonald's," Judge Todd Schoenberger, LandColt of Trading.

"I do not expect quarterly results very fast", he adds. The ball must begin quarterly publication October 11 with Alcoa.

In addition, many U.S. multinationals have benefited in recent months the relative weakness of the dollar to support exports.But the euro shows a quarterly decline of more than 7% against the greenback, depriving companies of the damper.

Last major undertaking as to have lowered its profit forecast, Ingersoll-Rand fell by over 12% on Wall Street Friday after the announcement.

Of surprises anyway?

While the S & P 500 fell 14.3% in the third quarter, 1,700 billion in value gone up in smoke, a period of disappointing results could accentuate this downtrend, analysts said.

Most of them have lowered their expectations of results.According to Thomson Reuters data, earnings for the third quarter are expected up 13.3% over the same period of 2010, against an expected increase to 17% in early July.

In this context, investors will closely monitor the economic indicators to try to learn more about the state of U.S. growth.

The employment figures, released Friday, will be eagerly awaited, as well as the ISM index of purchasing managers in manufacturing (Monday) and services (Wednesday).

Still, some strategists believe to possible surprises on the forehead of the results, as Natalie Trunow, Calvert Investment Management.

"U.S. multinationals do not necessarily derive all their additional benefits (European market), and China, the statistics point to a slowdown but not a hard landing," said she.

Others point out that the drastic austerity measures that large firms have emerged after the 2008 financial crisis will maintain their accounts afloat.

"From our perspective, U.S. companies have learned to make a profit in this context (difficult)," wants to believe Hank Smith, chief investment officer at Haverford Trust.

"The average growth in employment over the last four months was less than during the first four months of the year," the ministry.

President Barack Obama must address the Congress on September 8 to present a new government plan to stimulate hiring and boost economic growth, which has stalled since the beginning of the year. According to ministry figures, the only two industries that have actually hired in August, are the business services (28,000 net new jobs) and education and health care (34,000 balance).

Measured in the broad sense, that is to say, by incorporating the so-called discouraged unemployed, a number of other excluded from the official count, and people forced to work part time if you can find a full time job The unemployment rate in the United States rose again by 0.1 points in August, reaching 16.2%

Department figures are bleak in terms of changes in income Americans: the average hourly earnings fell slightly in August compared to July, and over one year's increase is only 1.9 % while inflation was 3.6% over the same period.

The new CEO does not rule Eiffage sale or closure of loss-making subsidiaries to consolidate the early resumption of the performance of the construction group observed in the first half.

Peter Berger, the designated successor of the president and founder of the number five European construction and concessions Jean-François Roverato, also announced for the energy division Forclum a savings plan to reduce by 3 to 4% overhead by 2013-2014.

"We will, on public works sectors, particularly energy, continue and even intensify our efforts and recovery plans so that the performances, which are stabilized, can go up significantly," said Peter Berger in a meeting with analysts.

"I do not exclude in particular on non-strategic subsidiaries deficit repeatedly stops or transfers," he added.

Eiffage, whose margins were negatively impacted in recent years by economic conditions and difficulties in the execution of certain contracts, including hospitals, also assured that he would in future be more selective in order intake .

"We anticipate a marked increase in free cash flow, the best three years, and therefore reduced our net debt due to a combination of debt reduction highways that will continue and the sale of certain assets that are PPP mature, "added Peter Berger.

RESUMPTION OF ACTIVITY CONFIRMED

Eiffage end of June showed a net debt to total 14.42 billion euros, 13.6 billion of debt lodged in the concessions.Autoroutes Paris Rhin Rhône conducted in the first half to three bond issues, the first step in the process of refinancing debt in February 2006 when privatisaton of French motorways.

"We will begin September 13 and 12 talks with banks to begin the process of refinancing Eiffarie and APRR, our goal is to finish the first quarter of 2012, that is to say again in advance before the final deadline is early 2013, "continued Pierre Berger.

Eiffage confirmed its objective of a return to growth in its turnover this year in view of a first half marked by an upturn after two consecutive years of contraction over the same period.

The group identified the first six months of the year an EBIT of 451 million euros, up 9.5% thanks to strong margin growth in the concessions. Its order book grew by 5% year on year.

In contrast, bond issues made by APRR in the first half came to adding to the financial burden of the company, bringing to 43 million euros against 70 million a year earlier net income, group share, a drop of 38 6%.

Prior to publication, the action Eiffage closed up sharply (7.48% to 33.90 euros), giving a market capitalization of around three billion euros. Since the beginning of the year, the title has sold about 4%, after declining 16% over the whole of 2010.

Wall Street opened slightly higher Wednesday, taking advantage of the good results announced by the retailer Target, a barometer of U.S. consumption.

Ten minutes after the opening, the Dow Jones took 0.5%, or 56.50 points at 11,462.43, while the S & P 500 gained 0.78% or 9.30 points at 1202.06.

The Nasdaq claiming responsibility for its 0.4% (10.07 points) to 2533.52.

The attention of the U.S. market seems to have diverted from the debt crisis in the euro area, and rising raw materials or of the euro against the dollar appears to reflect an appetite for risk returned.

The release of producer prices for July at 12:30 GMT, had no significant effect on the odds.

Two hours before the opening of Wall Street, the Target Group has reported a quarterly profit up, procurement through the school year has boosted sales in the end.

The title took 5.25% to 51.96 dollars.

Still in the distribution chain Staples office supplies jumped 5.41% to 14.99 dollars after reporting better than expected results and raised its profit forecast.

Dell, however, weighs in on the Nasdaq plunging 6.45% to 14.78 dollars after the disappointing results announced after the close Tuesday.