Archive for the 'international' Category
Cyprus is on the brink both economically and politically. Many speculate that the country, which joined the euro in 2008 to become the fourth of the area to apply for financial support.
The situation worsened with the explosion on July 11 last of a shipment of arms on a naval base. The tragedy left 13 dead and destroyed the main power plant on the island that produced 60% of its electricity. Since the disaster, Cyprus is facing a government crisis. Daily demonstrations demanding the resignation of President Demetris Christofias. To calm discontent, the latter requested the July 28 resignation of the government to conduct a reshuffle.
In addition, the economy ends up weaker than ever. The rating agency Moody's has revised its forecast for GDP growth of 1.5% this year and 2.5% in 2012 down after the explosion.It provides stability in 2011 and a 1% growth in 2012. In addition to the cost of rebuilding the plant and import of electricity in the interval – valued at over one billion euros – daily cuts disrupt an economy already weakened by the crisis. As a result, Standard & Poor's and Moody's both lowered the rating last week in Cyprus due to budgetary concerns of the country.
The banks are the Achilles heel of the Cypriots. Bank of Cyprus, the largest financial institution on the island, called earlier this week the government in Nicosia to take prompt action to prevent the country does need a financial rescue plan. "Unless we act, we risk the ability of the state to refinance and the consequences will be immediate and serious," the bank said in a statement.
The deficit is widening
Especially since the official debt of Cyprus – which is about 61% of GDP – may actually be higher according to some experts. End of 2010, the agency Stock Watch estimates that the debt was around Cyprus 105% of GDP, if we include the debt of social security funds. Enough to feed all the speculation? The spokesman of the Commissioner of Financial Services, Chantal Hughes said Tuesday he was "no question of an assistance plan" because the country is "determined to do what is necessary in terms of fiscal consolidation" . However, the deficit in the first half widened sharply, reaching 3.5% of GDP against 1.9% a year earlier.
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It was expected, it's now official: Michelin has raised its target sales volume of the current year, the prospect of a return of the markets at their own pace before the crisis. On the occasion of the publication of interim results of good quality, the tire giant announced a target of 8% increase in sales volumes in 2011, against a 6.5% increase expected before. "The environment in the second half should be marked by continued market growth at a pace closer to the long-term trends," said the OEM Clermont.
The world's largest tire with Japan's Bridgestone has also confirmed its forecast of growth in operating profit over the full year. In the first half, he totaled 971 million, up 18%.Net income increased it from 32.6% to 667 million euros, a figure above analysts' expectations.
Offset additional costs of raw materials
And over the period, the volume of the Michelin rose 12.6%, supporting the net sales that rose 21% to 10.1 billion euros over the period. The price effect also explains the increase in group sales up 9%.
And the group plans to continue to maintain a policy of raising prices to offset soaring raw materials, mainly the rise in natural rubber. The extra cost of higher commodity prices is estimated at 1.8 billion euros in a full year by the group but should be offset 100% against 80% previously.
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Still no solution. The elected representatives of the U.S. Congress again tried Sunday to reach an agreement on raising the debt ceiling, but without success. Democrats and Republicans had themselves set a target to announce progress on a plan for deficit reduction before the opening of Asian financial markets on Monday morning. The disappointment of investors is large, the Asian financial centers such as the Paris Bourse.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sought Monday to reassure Asian markets: "I am confident that Congress will do what is needed and will come to an agreement on the debt ceiling, and work with President Obama on measures to improve our long-term fiscal outlook, "she said in the text sent in advance of a speech in Hong Kong.
Members of both parties decided to work separately on separate projects. The chairman of the House of Representatives, Republican John Boehner, now plans to announce a plan at 14 am local time (20 hours in Paris).
"Nobody wants a failure"
John Boehner told his troops last night that no breakthrough had yet been obtained to repel the specter of a failure of the United States after August 2. According to two officials, he would have repeated in a conference call that "no one wants a failure." But he also warned his party's elected they may need to make "sacrifices" to avoid it.
Twice since Friday night, the talks between the two sides have failed to unlock the status quo on the action to start to reduce the U.S. debt.Friday night, the country experienced a further escalation in the standoff between Democrats and Republicans, they refused to pander to Barack Obama. The Democrats call indeed now $ 400 billion of additional tax increases. A change of position is unacceptable, according to John Boehner, while the two sides had previously agreed to a ceiling of one trillion dollars in additional tax revenue bad credit payday advance. Saturday evening, the President was therefore convened in emergency to four White House officials Republicans and Democrats in Congress for a new emergency meeting. But no more successful in negotiations, after 50 minutes of discussion.
Democratic side, the president believes that the 1.6 trillion cuts represent an offer "extraordinarily fair".Republican side, these efforts remain insufficient to John Boehner, who wishes to bring to 3 trillion budget savings over ten years.
Critical deadlines
Given the failure of talks between the president and elected representatives of both chambers, the compromise could eventually go through further discussion within Congress. If a common ground on removing the ceiling on debt seems likely, no party could only be satisfied with this short term solution, and discussions on the reduction of public spending should be more difficult. One observation that seems to share Timothy Geithner.
The U.S. Treasury Secretary said yesterday that there would probably have two stages for an agreement, first raising the debt ceiling and an agreement on spending cuts and a second stage of higher taxes and reforms.Whatever the timing adopted, it was also described as "unthinkable" that the United States do not meet their debt obligations. And as Barack Obama, who does not want the thorny issue of debt re-emerged during the election year ahead, Timothy Geithner wants to avert the threat of a default for at least 18 months, but at nine days the deadline of August 2, the time is now critical.
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The French debt will be increased by about 15 billion euros by 2014 due to the implementation of the plan of aid to Greece reached Thursday night, Francois Fillon said on Friday.
The Prime Minister also called the agreement by EU leaders on a rescue plan for Greece to step absolutely decisive for the euro area.
This increase in debt could undermine the government's objective to begin to reduce the debt ratios of France from 2013.
The Brussels agreement, which owes much to the efforts of France and Germany, pemettra to avoid bankruptcy of some countries in the euro area, said the Prime Minister after explaining the decisions taken Thursday to French parliamentarians at Matignon.
The "golden rule" would entrench the need to reduce deficits in the French Constitution is more than ever, still says the head of government.
The earthquake of March 11 in Japan can be seen in the accounts of the mobile phone manufacturer Sony Ericsson. Controlled equally by the Japanese Sony and Swedish Ericsson, the joint venture made a loss of 50 million euros in the second quarter, the first for over a year. Its turnover was also affected, falling 32% to 1.19 billion euros.
"The impact of the earthquake has had an impact on the supply chain and delivery of approximately 1.5 million product especially at the beginning of the quarter," said the Swede Bert Nordberg, CEO of Sony Ericsson. Its mobile phone sales declined to 7.6 million units. What Sony Ericsson should immerse the tenth largest in the world.
Already, the whole of 2010, the group had fallen to sixth place, because of Apple's breakthrough in the rankings, according to research firm Gartner.Then, in the first quarter, Sony Ericsson has continued its descent into hell to register for the ninth World manufacturers. The thrust of the champions of smartphones such as Apple, Samsung, Research in Motion, which manufactures the BlackBerry, and the Taiwanese HTC, very involved in the smartphone using Google's Android, partly explains the loss of land. However, even the American and Chinese ZTE Motorola went to Sony Ericsson.
Play the card Android
Xperia product line, totaling 16 million units, has been slow to be renewed, which explains the loss of land until the first quarter of 2011. However, recent losses do not affect the strategy of the joint venture. This is a "hiccup." "We do not change our goals, plans or anything.We see a great demand for our products and we approach the last two quarters in a very positive, "said the boss of Sony Ericsson. The focus on Android, the Google operating system for smartphones, the most sold in the world. Already 70% of its sales of smart phones, designed to connect to the Internet, are equipped with Google software. Sony Ericsson claims therefore about 11% of the global market segment. Bert Nordberg hopes to achieve, ultimately quarter sales of Google Phone in the world. But it does not specify when this should occur.
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The higher the debt crisis is intensifying and European gold is getting stronger. The metal price has risen late Thursday at a new record of 1594.45 dollars approaching the threshold of 1600 dollars per ounce, still supported by concerns about the debt crisis in the euro zone and the renewed nervousness around indebtedness of the United States. The metal is "overbought in a configuration that is generally followed by a phase correction with profit taking," said Alexandre Taurand, market analyst at XTB France.
Since early July, the Yellow Gold has gained nearly 60 dollars and grew by more than 2% in five days. A craze that is also explained by its role as a refuge for investors wishing to protect themselves against currency volatility, turbulence government bonds and inflation pressures persist.Since the beginning of the month, the disturbing news in the euro area accumulates. Standard & Poor's warned that a draft agreement between Greece and private creditors would be equivalent to a default under its criteria. On Tuesday, the working group to find a solution to save the country from bankruptcy said he did not exclude a more "partial failure" Greek. Moody's lowered the rating of Portugal and the eyes are now to Italy and Spain where the rates of bonds soaring.
Investors are not convinced by the ads of European finance ministers that provide control to prevent contagion. The latter said they were willing to increase the size of the Fund for financial help. They are also considering a "lengthening of maturities of loans" made to give more time to countries in difficulty to repay their debt. But nothing works.Tuesday again, plummeting stock markets in Europe reflected a continuing concern.
All eyes turned to Italy
"Unlike money, which is currently trading on the area of 35.50 dollars an ounce and is a turning point towards lower, gold is playing its role as a refuge and is one of few underlying advantage of the situation, "says Alexandre Taurand.
In his view, two scenarios are emerging now for the precious metal, "If the price settles above the area of 1547.11 dollars, then maybe we would pause in the middle before a new upward impulse to try re-cross the area of 1557 dollars per ounce. In the event that the price of gold were to fall below the 1545 dollars, then we would have a target level of support for 1541 dollars, "said he.But can not decide yet, "there are a lot of uncertainty. Investors are focused on the Italian austerity plan (on which Parliament must decide by by the summer break, ed.) They also monitor the situation in the United States with the vote on the debt ceiling to be held by 2 August. "
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In the future, the quality of service to access the Internet at very high speed could be paid by consumers and Internet giants like Google and Facebook. Telecoms operators should therefore more profitable to make significant investments to connect at least half of Europeans in very high speed (100 Mbit / s) in 2020. This is one of eleven proposals submitted to Neelie Kroes on Wednesday in Brussels by three CEOs of large European companies that have telecom floor forty counterparts. In early March, the Vice President of the European Commission, responsible for digital strategy, had given three working groups to Jean-Bernard Lévy, Vivendi chief executive, Rene Obermann, CEO of Deutsche Telekom and Ben Verwaayen, the CEO of Alcatel-Lucent.She wanted to know their positions to achieve the objectives of the Internet of the future of Europe. But Neelie Kroes has given its green light. She noted that the discussion "has not led to a consensus."
Contribution of 9 billion
However, Europe has announced that it could contribute up to 9 billion euros for investment in telecom infrastructure. The total was estimated between 200 and 300 billion euros over the period 2010-2020 for the operators. The President of the European Commission, "Jose Manuel Barroso has made the announcement Tuesday night at a dinner.Wednesday, Neelie Kroes reiterated the proposed contributions to investment of 9 billion euros in European funds, "says Jean-Bernard Lévy, CEO of Vivendi.
In order to reduce investment, European players have suggested that the frequencies are shared for future mobile networks and that "investments are pooled, especially for civil works and the optical fiber," says Gabrielle Gauthey, Director of Public Affairs Alcatel-Lucent. For his part, Rene Obermann, head of Deutsche Telekom, has urged all sectors to agree on the creation of standards for interconnecting the next generation network.
But among all the proposals, which calls on Europe a "differentiation in terms of traffic management to promote innovation and new services and meet the demand for different quality levels" is to be the most difficult to be accepted by the giants of the Web. They should negotiate in secret affairs, with operators to deliver services to high-speed Internet users. Supporters of this proposal, it would not be called into question the "neutrality" of the Internet. Because Google and other Facebook would not have to sign these contracts.
The European Central Bank has pointed out as planned today its main interest rate from 1.25% to 1.5%, at meeting of its governing council in Frankfurt. The financial markets were convinced that since Jean-Claude Trichet, its president, expressed his "great vigilance", vis-à-vis inflation, June 30, before the European Parliament. It reached 2.7% year over year, according to Eurostat.
This will be the second time this year that the ECB interest rates rises and the eleventh increase since Jean-Claude Trichet took charge of the institution in 2003.
Not since the single currency is "European economic growth has been uneven," noted economists, however, Societe Generale. Industrial production rose 9.6% year on year in Germany (2.6% in France), whereas it fell by 10.9% in Greece.Jean-Claude Trichet is expected to speak on the role of rating agencies include difficulty many observers that the ECB does not it stands out more openly to their own decisions refinancing of banks.
The U.S. stock markets, should the open down on Wednesday. Future of Standard & Poor's 500 and Nasdaq 100, respectively, in fact retreating from 0.24% to 1333.50 points and 0.14%% to 2368.75 points. Tuesday, Wall Street ended the session in a disorganized manner. The Dow Jones lost 0.1% to 12,569.87 points while the Nasdaq 100 has been 0.35% to 2825.77 points. For its part, the broader index S & P 500 yielded 0.13% at 1337.88 points, in a low volume of trade.
Lowering the debt rating of Portugal four notches by Moody's is expected to weigh on investor sentiment on Wall Street.The rating agency has no confidence in the program "ambitious" in the words of the new government which includes to reduce the country's deficit from 9.1% to 5.9% this year, and 3% of 2013, and believes it is likely that Portugal needs a new aid in addition to 78 billion decided last May.
Also on the front of the public finance crisis in Europe, major international banks and insurers have an appointment in Paris today to discuss again the terms of their expected participation in the next plan of aid to Greece.
On the foreign exchange market, the euro fell sharply against the dollar on Wednesday, weighed down by renewed worries about the economic health of the most fragile countries in the euro area.Around 11:00 in Paris, the single European currency was worth 1.4359 dollars against 1.4418 dollars late Tuesday.
Warren Buffett eye on the activities of consumer credit from Citigroup
On the macroeconomic front, investors will be watching in the U guaranteed pay day loans.S., the ISM index of activity in the service in June in 16 hours and the weekly inventory of crude oil after half an hour.The main highlight of the week, however, is expected Friday with the employment figures.
The side of values, the U.S. investor Warren Buffett, through his holding company Berkshire Hathaway, is in line to take over the activities of consumer credit offered for sale by the bank Citigroup, the Wall Street Journal said on its website.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the micro-blogging site Twitter is finalizing a new round of finance which would raise hundreds of millions of dollars and the recovery to $ 7 billion.In December, Twitter announced that it has raised funds "important" from a group of investors who, according to a news site dedicated, focused its total value to about $ 3.7 billion.
Also note, investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley announced Wednesday it had placed with private investors 9.16% of Spanish giant Amadeus travel bookings, to 569.9 million euros.
In addition, DST Systems has announced the acquisition of IntelliSource Healthcare Solutions, a solutions provider operating in the field of health insurance. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
For its part, Pfizer has reported positive results for the phase III study conducted in Japan on Lyrica (pregabalin) for the treatment of fibromyalgia.
Day of truth for Greece on Wednesday. While Athens is on strike yesterday, members are asked to vote for or not an austerity plan for four years. The vote will be followed by a second vote tomorrow on the law enforcement.
The President of the European Union, Herman Van Rompuy, warned Tuesday that the next few hours would be "decisive" for Greece, the euro area and the global economy.
Since yesterday, the U.S. and Asian markets seem optimistic about the outcome of the vote in spite of renewed clashes on Wednesday between protesters and police Greek. Optimism is always de rigueur at the Paris Stock Exchange: the Cac 40 rose 1.32% to 3902.87 points.
As for other European exchanges, the FTSE-100 in London gained 1.01% to 5825.21 points and the Dax in Frankfurt was up 30% 1.23 to 7258.50 points.The FTSE MIB in Milan climbs from 1.60% to 19,765.46 points. The Italian luxury group Salvatore Ferragamo for his first day of trading, taking 8.89% to 9.80 euros in mid-session.
The first quarter growth revised down
On the macroeconomic front, INSEE revised down growth in the first quarter of France at 0.9% against 1% set in mid-May
For the euro area, the confidence index of entrepreneurs and consumers in June fell for the fourth consecutive month. The index fell to 105.1 points, down 0.4 points compared to May.
In the U.S., two indicators are on the agenda: the promise of sale of homes in June (16 hours) and the weekly inventory of crude oil (16.30).
On the corporate side, the banking sector is in good company in this context of optimism surrounding the Greek parliamentary vote.BNP Paribas takes 1.51% to 51.90 euros, Crédit Agricole rose 1.34% to 10.11 euros and Natixis advance of 0.90% to 3.34 euros. Yesterday, banks have earned an average of more than 2%.
Offshore wind: Areva alliance with Iberdrola
Societe Generale: 2.60% to 39.82 euros
The participation of private creditors to the new plan of financial support to Greece to be as fair as possible to increase the chances of success, said CEO of the bank, Frédéric Oudéa, the Senate Public TV.
Values cars respond well to the good performance of Japanese manufacturers on the stock market after the Japanese industrial production confirmed the rebound in April.Renault climbed 1.81% to 40.65 euros and Peugeot is up 1.61% to 30.95 euros.
EDF: 1.88% to 26.79 euros
The energy group confirms its investment in the LNG terminal in Dunkirk, along with Belgian Fluxys and Total.The cost will be borne by EDF to 65% (650 million), 25% Fluxys (250 million) and 10% by Total (100 million).
GDF Suez: 0.93% to 24.34 euros
The gas is in talks to take over the assets of the U.S. company Duke Energy in Latin America, according to the Brazilian business newspaper Valor Economico.
Areva: -0.40% to 25.20 euros
The nuclear group has confirmed that he would ally with the Spanish Iberdrola Renewables on two of the five areas of the tender for offshore wind launched by the state, confirming a report of Echoes.
Ipsos: 3.85% to 32.80 euros
The British advertising group Aegis said to be in exclusive talks with the institute of studies and surveys for the sale of its subsidiary Synovate market research.
Havas: 2.26% to 3.58 euros
In an interview with Echo, the executive director of the group will develop two commercial microarray in the world, one around his BETC teaches French and the other about Arnold, his agency based in Boston.
DS: 1.41% to 58.37 euros
The software developer, a subsidiary of Dassault, owner of the Figaro Group, combined with a subsidiary of American online retailer Amazon to offer a paperless commercial in "cloud computing" (technology that allows a company to dispense servers physically located in its premises), according to a spokesman for the group.
After the close of trading, EuropaCorp will release its results for the year 2010-2011.
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