Business & Financial News

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%.

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.

This derivative launched by a subsidiary of Deutsche Börse, the heart of a lively political debate in France before the presidential election, opened in fall lst. The trading floor in Frankfurt

The new futures contract on the French debt, in the heart of a lively political debate in France before the presidential election, yielded 0.17% on Monday but was not exchanged at the edge of its first trading day on the market German Eurex. The futures contract maturing in June on the obligations of France stood at 125.80 euros a little before 9:00 (0700 GMT) for a first course to 126.02 euros. Only seven contracts were traded, making it insignificant at this stage of fluctuations. Meanwhile, the 10-year rate of France in the bond market was a slight increase of 2.960% against 2.943% at Friday's close.  

The futures contract was launched by Eurex derivatives specialist and subsidiary of the German stock exchange Deutsche Börse. But several political parties including the Left Front, Europe Ecology-Greens and the National Front, see it as a tool to encourage speculation against the French debt on the eve of presidential elections. Francois Hollande wanted last week that the German authorities "cancel" the introduction of the futures contract, a proposal derided the president candidate Nicolas Sarkozy. For his part, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, President of the Financial Markets Authority (AMF), held that the launch of this product was not a good signal, just days before the first round of French presidential election.

Audi, the premium brand of Volkswagen sold 143,500 vehicles in March, a record, or 14.1% from a year earlier, thanks to solid demand from the States U.S. and China.

Over the quarter, the manufacturer sold 346,100 vehicles, representing an increase of 10.8%.

"We started the year 2012 successfully and we anticipate continued growth in the coming months," said in a statement Peter Schwarzenbauer, responsible for sales of Audi.

The first tripartite round table on the future of the plant PSA Aulnay-sous-Bois has resulted in no concrete progress on Friday and the prefect of Seine-Saint-Denis set the next appointment in late June, after the presidential election.

The interview between the State, represented by the prefect, the direction of the automaker and the unions and local politicians, claimed for nine months by them, was stormy said Jean-Pierre Mercier, representative of the CGT, and five trade unions on these seven left the room before the end.

"The unions have called for PSA agrees in writing (…) To maintain all jobs at least until the end of 2016, officially ended production of the C3, and assign a new vehicle to replace the C3. But management does not want to commit to anything, "he said

." The next date falls after the presidential and the law, it is exactly the speech Peugeot: do not use that either in the middle of election campaigns, "he said

… In an attempt to …… get rid of this calendar, the CGT called for a rally next Thursday before the campaign headquarters of Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris

.

The Department of Industry, has said his side "fully alert and mobilized to the site's future automotive Aulnay-sous-Bois" and stressed in a statement, the group confirmed that it "does not consider the proposed closure of site in France." 

But at the roundtable, PSA Peugeot Citroëna again refused to discuss the C3 after repeating, as it has for several months, will still produce cars qu'Aulnay until 2014, unspecified beyond.

The builder also mentioned, the statement of the Ministry, the arrival on the surfaces of Aulnay-sous-Bois unused today, "new economic activities complementary ments ".

PSA declined to comment on the roundtable, but a spokesman said that about 40,000 square meters on the site now unused, 23,000 were de ja and 17,000 rental available for rental for industrial and real estate. 

The factory in Aulnay-sous-Bois, which produces the small Citroen sedan, employs 3,500 people and seems the most threatened European sites of PSA while the group was given two years to re ; Gler the issue of persistent overcapacity in Europe.

The fate of the Madrid plant also raises questions as no model has been announced to take forward over the last Peugeot 207 assembled therein.

This is a Rupert Murdoch angry that went against the attack Thursday against the "enemies" who accuse his media group News Corp. to have hacked his rivals, calling them "aristos and conservatives "finding their privileges of the last century.

Already weakened by the scandal of illegal wiretapping in Britain, News Corp. is in the center of new allegations made in Britain and Australia that a subsidiary of would have had the mission of promoting piracy of pay TV channels competing.

The Australian Financial Review reported Wednesday that News Corp. had made use of Operational Security, a subsidiary established in the mid 1990s, to sabotage its competitors. The Panorama program, broadcast earlier this week in Britain by the BBC, had already reported similar suspicions.

Operational Security was a branch of NDS, a subsidiary of News Corps specializes in signal encryption, a crucial activity for pay-TV channels.

News Corp. as NDS, exit from the orbit of the Murdoch group, pitted categorical denials to the allegations.

"It seems that each of our competitors and enemies accumulate lies and slander," wrote Rupert Murdoch on his Twitter account Thursday, adding that the response was being prepared and would be severe. 

News Corp., whose activities span the spectrum of media and whose power is said to be able to make or break political careers, is subjected to very high criticism since the scandal broke wiretaps in Britain who notably led to the closure of the tabloid News of the World last summer.

But faced with these new charges, Murdoch, who confessed last July to a parliamentary committee having lived "the most humiliating day of his life", seems to have opted for a response from any other type .

Always on the microblogging site, he believes his "enemies have different aims" but they are "the worst old aristocrats and conservatives who want to preserve the status quo of the last century with their monopolies ". For a staunch Republican such as Murdoch, "aristo" comes under heavy insult.

THE BBC AND MAINTAIN THEIR AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW INFORMATION

But the BBC, which was repeatedly in trouble with BSkyB, whose News Corp. owns 39% stake, maintained Thursday the revelations of the magazine Panorama.

"We received the letter and have knowledge of NDS by News Corp's rejection of the revelations of Panorama. However, emails released this issue have not been manipulated, contrary to claims that NDS, and nothing (…) does not minimize the evidence released es in this issue, "said the public channel

. At the opposite, the Australian Financial Review, property group Fairfax Media, chief rival of Murdoch in the Australian press, has also maintained its information

. "Fully secured to the extraordinary investigation Neil Chenoweth, "the journalist who released the information, Michael Stutchbury, editor of the Australian Financial Review, said the newspaper was" in no way motivated by any desire either to harm a rival financial group that manages the Financial Review ". "We only cover a case and publish what we found," he said.

No evidence uncovered by the BBC as the Australian Financial Review to suggest that Murdoch or any senior executive of News Corp were not aware of practices lent to NDS.

According to the Australian Financial Review, Operational Security reportedly recruited hackers to decipher codes or access cards provided by pay TV competitors to their subscribers. These codes were then distributed on the black market via "yes cards" to monitor programs encrypted channels without paying a penny.

The Australian Financial Review, which suggests a shortfall amounting to millions of dollars, said particular rely on 14,400 emails retrieved from the hard drive of a laptop that used it Ray Adams, responsible for Europe NDS Operational Security from January 1996 to May 2002.

Monday, a report broadcast by the BBC as part of its documentary program Panorama has ensured that NDS hired a consultant to broadcast via its website access codes to ITV Digital, a competitor to Sky TV , chain that belonged to Murdoch. 

ITV Digital, which has accumulated difficulties at launch (rivalry between shareholders, lack of flagship programs, price war with BSkyB), disappeared in 2002.

Wall Street finished slightly higher Friday, supported by buoyant energy stocks in the face of surging oil prices, but the gains of the day do not allow the S & P 500 finished the week in the green.

This index, which is the benchmark for fund managers, posted a weekly decline of 0.5%, thus interrupting a series of five consecutive weeks of growth. However, since the beginning of the year, he won about 11%. Compared to a low of October, its progress is more than 25%.

The Dow Jones industrials gained 30 0.27% or 34.59 points, to 13,080.73. The S & P-500, wider, took 4.33 points, or 0.31%, to 1397.11. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 4.60 point turn (0.15%) to 3,067.92.

For the week, the Dow has sold 1.1% while the Nasdaq posted a gain of 0.4%.

Despite the magnitude of the upward cycle bringing Wall Street for several months, most market participants do not believe the decline this week is the prelude to a more pronounced downturn.

They believe instead that the U.S. stock market should benefit next week cleanings portfolio at quarter end, which are usually fund managers trade shares with the sub- performed against those that have outperformed the market.

"Generally, people are well disposed towards the shares. They are ready to enter the market whenever there is a slight decline, "said Michael Matousek, a broker at Global Investors

.. Rising ……. daily was the fact the oil compartment, with the sector index gained 0.96%

…. ….. This is mainly due to the 1.5% jump in oil prices after the information saying that Iranian oil exports were down in March, the tightening of Western sanctions to against Tehran have led some customers to stop or reduce their purchases of Iranian crude

. values ​​related materials first turn have been supported by the good results of the largest copper producer Codelco. The sector index has been 0.98%.

The new home sales fell 1.6% in February to return to 313,000 on an annualized basis, said the Commerce Department, which has downgraded statistics January, to 318,000 against 321,000 originally announced. Economists polled by Reuters had expected 325,000 sales.

This indicator has sealed property values, the PHLX sector index yielded 0.57%. The action of KB Home fell 8.45% to 10.29 dollars after the number five in the construction of individual houses in the United States has reported a widening of its losses the first quarter.

The title Monster Worldwide has been 7.69% to 10.22 dollars after the agency offers online job, which has a market capitalization of approximately one billion dollars, has says ready to sell all or part of its capital.

Nike reported Thursday a profit above expectations for the third quarter of fiscal offset and an increase in its future orders.

But the title of the sporting goods company has closed down 3.22% to 107.42 dollars.

The objective of the British government to eliminate the budget deficit within five years is still valid, said Wednesday the finance minister, presenting a tight budget for the third consecutive year.

This budget, however, reduce the income tax and to accelerate the reduction of corporate tax (IS). These measures will be funded from the taxation of banks and wealthy landowners.

George Osborne added that the UK economy should avoid recession, says a new anticipate an acceleration of the recovery next year.

The growth rate of the UK economy is projected at 0.8% this year to 2.0% in 2013 to 2.7% in 2014 to 3.0% and the next two years.

The OBR had planned in November to 0.7% growth this year, 2.1% in 2013 and 3.0% in 2015 and 2016.

In terms of fiscal measures, the tax bracket of 50% for taxpayers whose annual income exceeds 150,000 pounds (180.000), introduced by the previous Labour government, will be reduced to 45% from April 2013, a move that will cost a maximum of 100 million pounds, said the Chancellor.

The minimum tax is increased to 9205 pounds of annual income (11,000 euros), an increase higher than expected, from April 2013 also.

The rate of corporation tax will be narrowed down from 26% to 24% next month and to 22% by 2014.

To fund these measures, a stamp duty of 7% will be levied on sales of land and property, above the two million pounds. In addition, the bank tax will be increased to 0.105% effective January 2013, so that the reduction of the SI does not benefit the banks.

DECREASE IN LOANS

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) of the government projects a decrease in net borrowings to bring them back to 21 billion pounds for the year 2016-2017 as they totaled 126 billion over the year 2011 to 2012.

The new projection of the OBR is somewhat more optimistic than in November, when Chancellor of the Exchequer had to extend the package of austerity beyond the e elections of 2015.

The public sector debt and must reach a peak of 76.3% of GDP in 2014-15 before falling. 

"We are well positioned to meet this mandate and eliminate the structural current account deficit by 2016-2017," said the Chancellor of the Exchequer to Parliament on the occasion of the budget.

However, this deficit has reached record levels in February, reflecting a lower tax revenues and higher public spending.

Only a narrow majority of 15 out of 29 economists polled by Reuters had expected Tuesday that the coalition government to succeed in reaching its target of reducing the public accounts in balance, in structural terms at the horizon 2016-2017. 

They were 23 to consider that the debt ratio would have declined by that date and provided only a 25% probability of risk for the country to lose its precious triple-A, against 27.5% during a similar survey a month ago.

The Office of Debt Management announced that its part of the state debt would total 167.7 billion pounds in the 2012-2013 biennium, or about ten billion pounds less than when the previous year.

A Reuters poll gave 180 billion.

The number of referrals to the Ombudsman of energy increased 14% in 2011. At issue: payment difficulties. The Ombudsman proposes to introduce a general truce breaks from November 1 to March 15.

The cases of fuel poverty rose sharply last year in France, as a result of the crisis and rising energy bills and gas, says National Energy Ombudsman in his 2011 report published Tuesday. The Ombudsman, an independent administrative authority which began operations in 2008, saw its number of referrals increase by 14% last year, in 8044, it said in its annual report, up a bit weaker than the explosion recorded in previous exercises.

But of that total, the number of cases related to payment difficulties has increased by 80% compared to 2010, and represented over 15% of all referrals, calculated the Ombudsman. "The economic crisis and rising energy prices have compounded the problem of fuel poverty", that is to say, struggling to pay their electric bills or gas, and pushed more and more income households to seek mediation, the institution said. The Ombudsman recalls in passing that the regulated gas prices rose 25% in two years, and those of electricity by 8%.

The Ombudsman also proposes measures to better fight against the rise of fuel poverty, considering the schemes (such as social tariffs for electricity and gas, whose allocation has been made automatic for all eligible households ) insufficient, even if they are "in the right direction." It proposes the establishment of a general truce breaks from November 1 to March 15 for all consumers, on the model of the winter break of evictions (a truce energy cuts already applied but only for some consumers), and the establishment of an "energy check", which may be substituted for social tariffs.