Business & Financial News

Wall Street should end the year 2012 on a moderate gain, despite the risks posed by the debt crisis in the euro area in global activity and a U.S. growth likely to remain sluggish, according to a Reuters poll published Thursday.

Analysts surveyed are however optimistic about the economy of the United States and many are in stock price ratios of estimated earnings (PER) historically low a supporting factor for the rating.

All concerned, however, the debt crisis in Europe, who falter world stock markets in recent months.

The Standard & Poor's 500 benchmark for fund managers, should finish next year on an increase of 7.5% to 1340 points, compared to the closing of nearly 1.

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.

Morgan Stanley said Wednesday it posted a profit in the third quarter, supported by an accounting effect that stems from a new valuation of its debt.

The second U.S. investment bank posted a profit of $ 2.15 billion (1.55 billion), $ 1.15 per share against a loss of 7 cents a year earlier.

Net banking income rose 46% to 9.89 dollars.

Excluding a gain of $ 3.4 billion attributed to an adjustment of the value of its debt, Morgan Stanley gained 2 cents a share.This is related to an accounting rule known as an "adjustment to the valuation of debt" (debt valuation adjustements or DVA).

Clearly, the fact of integrating into account the increased risk associated with a reduced commitment required of the holder, thus generating accounting profits.

Before Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs have also used the accounting process.

Forward Exchange, the title of Morgan Stanley advanced 18 cents to 16.81 dollars.

Income from its trading activities more than doubled from the third quarter of 2010 and an increase of 24% over the period April-JuneThis sharp increase reflects the gains attributable to the DVA.

Its asset management segment has meanwhile reached a revenue of 3.26 billion dollars, 5% more than last year at this time, but less than the second quarter.

GNP derived from asset management is in turn stood at $ 215 million, 73% from the third quarter of last year and 67% less than in April-June 2011.

This decline is attributed to losses on investments in its banking business and its activities in real estate.

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."

The favorite candidate in the primary socialist believes that the rising tax burden is unavoidable. The effort must be "shared", he says. François Hollande at a rally in Rennes on 27 september 2011.

François Hollande, the favorite in the polls primary PS, said Tuesday that it would "necessarily" increase the tax burden on Tuesday at a meeting in Rennes, defending his plan to re-create 60,000 jobs in education evening mobilization teacher. "There will necessarily be a rising tax burden," said the elected Corrèze to 2,000 people, noting that taxes, fees and expenses had increased by Nicolas Sarkozy (44% against 43% of GDP according to him) while the head of state promised to reduce the "four points" in 2007.

"If this effort is not shared, there will be no recovery," he added.He lampooned the tax on soft drinks recently proposed by the government: "Why sugar? Why not salt? And the salt tax would be reinvented." The evening of a day of action in education, Francois Hollande has again defended his plan to re-create 60,000 jobs in education in five years: "I prefer a plan for education (to) a plan for prisons "he said, referring to the recent announcement by the Head of State to create 30,000 prison places.

The pessimistic comments by the Fed on the U.S. economy were right the last hopes of the market. Paris loses about 5% as other European markets, the euro and oil fall as well.

Financial markets no longer know where to turn. They awaited the Fed's effective measures to stimulate activity, they have mostly kept very pessimistic comments on the U.S. economy. And as concerns over the health of European banks are still there, the world's stock markets have performed a new dive on Thursday.

After opening sharply lower, European stock markets accentuated their losses by mid-afternoon. The Paris Bourse and yielded 4.57%, Frankfurt 3.77%, 4.70% London, Milan and Madrid 3.70% 4.40%. At the opening of the New York Stock Exchange, the Dow Jones lost 1.45% and the Nasdaq 2.85%..

Bank stocks, especially French, were the first victims of this new access of depression. Societe Generale, Credit Agricole and Natixis were down more than 7%. BNP Paribas, some limited damage to -3.3%. Alarmist comments by an officer of the influential American fund Pimco, saying that French banks could tip the whole of Europe into recession, came to power concerns.

Equity markets are not the only ones suffering. Direct result of growth at half mast, and thus reduced demand, oil prices plunged more than 5% in New York, returning to their lowest levels in a month. A barrel of "light sweet crude" for November delivery traded at 80.91 dollars.

On the foreign exchange market, the euro has meanwhile fallen below $ 1.35. It especially touched its lowest level for ten years against the yen.

Main accused of helping the new blues, the U.S. central bank. "The Fed, instead of reassuring the markets, instead encouraged the weak operators and increased their aversion to assets considered risky," explained Jane Foley, analyst at Rabobank.

As expected, it has announced the launch of Operation Twist, which will be for sale by the end of June 2012 for $ 400 billion of treasury bills in order to redeem an equivalent amount with a longer maturity. The stated objective is to lower interest rates over time. Problem, the effectiveness of the measure is highly controversial because these rates are already low. Its impact on business would not be obvious.

Unconvincing in action, the Fed, however, impressed the market by the extent of his pessimism on the U.S. economy, citing the "continuing weakness" of the labor market and "significant risks" associated with "tensions global financial markets. " Expected as the messiah, Bern Bernanke, the head of the U.S. central bank has disappointed. The Fed "does not have the tools to miraculously revive economic growth," could only observe Nigel Gault, the firm IHS Global Insight.

Several indicators have confirmed the sluggishness of activity across the Atlantic, like the new jobless claims last week to 423,000, down but higher than expected (418,000). For its part, the Conference Board's composite index came out up 0.3% in August, but slowed down, which is a sign of increased risks to growth.The U.S. treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, has found himself in Washington that the slow economic growth was a challenge "bigger" than the debt that states the world should give priority to support growth.

As if this were not enough, the bad news continued to accumulate on the side of the euro area. The private sector activity there is in fact contracted in September for the first time in over two years, according to a first estimate of the firm Markit PMI. The activity slows and approaches the stagnation in Germany and France, the two largest economies in the region, the source said. Italy, whose financial markets worried, revised sharply downward its growth forecasts, reduced to 0.7% for 2011, 0.6% in 2012 and 0.9% in 2013.Rome assured that the austerity plan passed last week was enough to balance the budget by 2013. But the bond market, the Italian securities suffered, with a standard rate record deal with German titles, safe havens in which investors have rushed. The performance of the German Bund and 10-year fell to its lowest ever observed in 1.665%.

The debate continues in Europe on the recapitalization of banks, following the call to use the IMF's European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) to recapitalize the most exposed to the debt crisis. The IMF estimates the potential losses in the sector to 200 billion euros. Echoing the words of his colleague in charge of Competition, Joaquin Almunia, European Commissioner Michel Barnier to Financial Services found that 25 of them need to be recapitalized.

TF1 reported Tuesday a sharp improvement in profitability in the first half thanks to cost savings and a return to growth in advertising revenue for its flagship channel in the second quarter, which boosted the price of its action.

In a statement released Tuesday, the television group maintains its forecast, however, considered conservative by analysts, stability of its consolidated sales throughout 2011, suggesting a continued lack of visibility on the evolution of conditions.

In early trading, the action blazes 4.9% to 13.35 euros while the index of pan-European media yields 0.4% at the same time.Since the beginning of the year, the title grew by 3.2% while its main rival M6, which will publish its half-year after the close of trading, 12.6% abandoned.

"The second quarter results were better than expected thanks to higher performance expectations of the TF1 channel," said one market participant, citing in particular the surprise increase in advertising revenue in the first string after a bumpy start to the year.

The advertising revenue of the chain's flagship group has returned to growth in the second quarter with sales up 0.7% after declining 2.6% in the first three months of the year sealed by poor hearing.

The market, which questioned the ability of TF1 to rise the prices of its advertising space in the second quarter in the absence of significant remontrée hearings, expected a decline of about 1%.

Of all the first six months of the year, advertising revenue declined, however, emerged from 0.9% to 764.6 million euros.

OPERATING INCOME surged 79%

The 43%-owned subsidiary of Bouygues also shows a jump of nearly 79% of its operating profit in the first half to 186.5 million euros against 136.5 million on average, expected by the market.

This sharp increase is due to new significant savings on the cost of grid TF1 which stood at 423.6 million, against 482.6 million during the same period last year.

The difference is mainly due to favorable basis of comparison, the channel that broadcast in June 2010 World Cup soccer.The net savings in terms of broadcasting rights, amounts to 49.3 million euros, TF1 said in a statement.

In contrast, sales of other activities of the group remained stable, rising advertising revenues and TMC NT1, the DTT channels redeemed last year was offset by the absence of income related to resale of sports rights.

Overall, the consolidated turnover of the group amounted to 1.3 billion euros, down 0.5% from the first half of 2010.

Net income Group share for its 118.6 million euros in the first half, against 74.2

A conference call for analysts is scheduled for 9:30.Group CEO, Nonce Paolini, could announce on this occasion it will request the free passage of its continuous news channel LCI.

Philips on Monday announced an unexpected loss of 1.345 billion euros in the second quarter, attributed to lower growth than expected and exceptional charges, and a plan to save 500 million euros.

The Dutch conglomerate had announced in late June that it expected a strong decrease in its second quarter results, while warning that caused a fall in the title.

Philips said in a statement having spent a provision of EUR 1.4 billion for impairment of assets on its lighting business and health.

The group warned last month that its second quarter results would be much lower than the previous one, with a slowdown in sales growth in lighting and consumer devices.

"It's generally a signal that consumers do not really head out of the water," said Hans Slob, an analyst at Rabobank.

Philips is the world's leading lights, one of three leading global medical equipment and the leading European producer of electronic devices.

The announcement of this loss takes the market by surprise, who expected a profit of 72.8 million for the second quarter.The group made a loss from operations (EBIT) of 1.123 billion euros (against a profit of 180 million expected) based on 5.2 billion in revenue (5.213 billion expected by the consensus).

Dutch electronics company has also announced a share buyback of two billion euros and a cost reduction plan which should enable it to achieve 500 million euros in savings.

The group announced build by 2013 a growth in turnover of about 4 to 6% – based on an average growth of GDP of 3-4% per year – with a margin EBITA of between 10-12% and return on invested capital of 12-14%.

CEO Frans van Houten said on CNBC that the stock repurchase program gave him enough financial margin to carry out targeted acquisitions and had no plans to close factories.

Shortly after 12:30, the title fell by 1.01% to 17.19 euros.

After four consecutive months of decline, the curve of unemployment in France is rising again in May, a reversal in which the government took note and promised to "redouble efforts".

The number of job applicants in category A, those who exercised no activity during the month, increased by 17,700 (+0.7%) last month in France to $ 2,686,800, show Statistics released Tuesday by the Ministry of Labour and job center.

This is the first increase for this category since the start of the year.In one year, the number of unemployed in category rose by 0.3%.

By adding the persons engaged in small (B and C), the increase in the number of unemployed reached 1.0%, 39,400 more people in one month, reaching 4,078,500. On an annual basis, this figure represents an increase of 3.8%.

If we include the overseas departments, the number of job seekers in categories A, B and C reached 4,341,400.A figure up 0.9% over the month and 4.1% year on year.

Xavier Bertrand, Minister of Labour, Employment and Health, noted the increase in a statement, stressing that it "calls into question, however, the downward trend registered since the beginning of the year ".

Between January 1 and May 31, he notes, the number of unemployed fell by Class A 35,700.

The government has set a goal of reducing the unemployment rate in France under the symbolic level of 9.0% by the end of the year, against 9.3% in late 2010.INSEE table on its side on a rate of 9.0% in the fourth quarter.

"Redouble their efforts"

Dominique Barbet, economist at BNP Paribas, stresses the decline of 8.5% of employment repeatedly declared that he says can be explained by the lack of public holidays on weekdays in May and approach the entrance effect of pension reform (July 1), "which could have reduced the need for replacement workers."

The detailed figures for May showed a persistent weakness of the French labor market, namely the difficulty to reduce youth unemployment and that of seniors.

In less than 25 years, the number of jobseekers in Class A has increased by 1.3% last month, but remains down 6.6% year on year.For over 50 years, the increase was 0.9% over one month and reached 12.3% year on year.

Another trend is confirmed: the importance of long-term unemployment. The number of persons unemployed for a year or more increased 0.8% in May for categories A, B and C and rose by 10.5% compared to May 2010.

"The results of May to encourage greater efforts to reduce unemployment," said Xavier Bertrand.

Public policy based in particular on the promotion of learning, improving the economic support of licensees and a better balance between supply and demand by focusing on business "in tension", that is say, lack of labor, like construction or catering.

Wall Street opened lower Monday as investors exercise caution after turning on the conditions on the disbursement of aid to Greece and the warning by Moody's of a possible lowering of the sovereign rating of Italy.

A few minutes after the start of trading, the Dow Jones yielded 0.17% (-20.43 points) to 11,983.93 points, the Standard & Poor's 500 index 0.17% to 1269.29 points and the Nasdaq Composite 0 , 15% to 2612.45 points.

The prevailing uncertainty about the evolution of the issue of Greek debt penalizes financial stocks. JPMorgan Chase flexed to 1.47% and Bank of America gave up 1.3%.

Suntech Power fell by his side of 4.19%.The world's largest manufacturer of solar cells said Monday it plans to produce more semiconductor wafers in-house for up to 50% of its total production capacity of cells.