Personal Finance News & Advice

The Tokyo Stock Exchange ended sharply lower Friday as investors worried by the worsening debt crisis in the eurozone and rising yen.

The Nikkei lost 2.99% to 8611.31 points, points, while the Topix broader, yielded 2.89% to 725.54 points.

The fear that the turmoil in Spain, after the lowering of 16 banks by Moody's, impact on the Japanese financial sector weighed on banking stocks as Nomura Holdings, which fell 5.63%.

Exporting companies have also suffered from the rise in the yen, considered a hedge against the dollar and the euro.

Toyota has sold 3.7% and Nikon, which is no longer recommended for purchase by Nomura, lost 5.7%. 

The Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi said Friday he was following the developments on the foreign exchange market with special attention, adding that he was ready to react appropriately, comments that suggest mid-word possible intervention on the yen.

One out of two was at least once in unemployment during its first three years of active life and the third was six months or more. Furthermore, the majority (70%) of the first jobs of CSD.

One out of two (52%) was at least once in unemployment during its first three years of active life and the third was six months or more, according to a survey by the Centre for Study and Research qualifications (Cereq) published this week. For this survey "Generation" triennial, the Cereq interviewed in spring 2010 a representative sample of 25,000 young people left education in 2007. After initial results released in 2011, it deepens a series of themes.

Of the 739,000 young people leaving initial training in 2007, a majority (62%) began his working life in a period of unemployment. After three years, the dominant path among eight "trajectory types" identified is that of a rapid and sustainable access to employment (58%). After six months, 80% of young people at least once landed a job (even very temporary). The trajectory analysis shows however that 12% had access "deferred", 10% are "dropout" and 9% have been unemployed for persistent or recurrent.

Thus, among those who experienced early unemployment, 20% have never managed to land a job within three years. The duration of the unemployment spell depends on the level of education: 56% for non-graduates (18% of generation), it was more than a year, for 27% of high school graduates and 9% of graduates (42% of the sample). Non-graduates are increasingly more difficult to find a place on the labor market. When 72% of young people generally work after three years, they are only 48% in employment in 2010 against 59% in 2001 and the unemployment rate reached 41% (30% in 2001).

"Precarious employment has become the standard for first jobs held," also highlights the Cereq, with 31% of the first hires made on permanent jobs. Since 1992, this study center, which depends on the ministries of Employment and Education, conducts every three years this type of investigation, interviewing the same age group after three, five, seven, and then decade of life.

Citing the restructuring of its operations, the Japanese electronics giant announced a workforce reduction. Sony will reduce its workforce by 10,000 people worldwide by the end of the year, due to the restructuring of several activities.

10,000 posts in less. The Japanese electronics giant Sony will reduce its workforce worldwide by the end of the year, due to the restructuring of several activities, said Monday the Japanese Nikkei business daily. This decrease corresponds to about 6% of total staff employed by Sony in late March 2011, 168,200 employees.

At a roundtable a few weeks ago, the new CEO of Sony, Kazuo Hirai, had indicated that he was to be expected of such decisions, given the need to restate the group which fears a loss annual net 220 billion yen (over $ 2 billion) and an operating deficit of 95 billion yen (900 million) for the year ended March 31.

Half of the positions being reduced in Japan and abroad will result from the transfer of operations, said the Nikkei, the rest resulting in particular from the need to reduce fixed costs. Sony recently decided to divest a subsidiary of chemical manufacturer of adhesives and films and optical disks. The transfer is expected during the last quarter of 2012.

The group is also trying to consolidate its small and medium size liquid crystal displays (LCD) with those of his fellow Hitachi and Toshiba in a joint venture in order to fight more effectively against Asian rivals.

Kazuo Hirai has also set a goal out of the red in two years the flagship TVs, a deficit for years and currently deep restructuring. In this context, Sony has already sold its 50% stake in the joint venture S-LDD founded with her South Korean rival Samsung Electronics. He now wants to thoroughly review its supply chain and associated cost structure. A press conference on the group's strategy for next year is scheduled Thursday, April 12.

Sony had already suffered severely as a result of the global financial crisis of 2008-2009, while eliminating more than 16,000 jobs worldwide and closing several factories to delegate more tasks to subcontractors.

Its competitors and compatriots Panasonic and Sharp are also forced to rethink their product lines and operating modes to adapt to a competitive environment increasingly fierce, with a deteriorating economic environment and the outbreak of the Japanese currency.

Back to the recession in the euro area, concerns over Spain, stopping fear of monetary easing in the U.S. … A series of bad news the markets into Wednesday. Paris lost nearly 3%. A screen broadcasts stock information in Shenyang, China, Aug. 10, 2011.

The bulk of the crisis is behind us? Investors are not so sure. The Paris Bourse fell nearly 3% Wednesday, penalized, as all European markets, the failure of a bond issue and Spanish fears of a return to recession in the euro area.

The CAC 40 has only widen its losses throughout the session to close on a decline of 2.74% to 3313.47 points in a given volume of trade, a sign of the nervousness of investors, from 4.074 billion euros. On other European financial centers, Frankfurt has given 2.84%, 2.30% London. For its part, the Euro Stoxx 50 lost 2.54%.

"While the United States, the Federal Reserve considers the economic recovery strong enough to prevent a new program of monetary easing, the situation in Europe is much more difficult as argued by the European Central Bank," said Baradez Alexander, an analyst at Saxo Bank.

Mario Draghi, the chairman of the Mint, said it was "premature" stop the anti-crisis measures in place to cope with the financial crisis. Neither the level of inflation, whose prospects are "anchored" or economic status or the high rate of unemployment in the eurozone, do begin this withdrawal, he said.

In this context, the ECB decided, not surprisingly, to leave its key interest rate unchanged at 1%, its lowest level ever. But "it has dampened hopes of investors who expected any new support measures given the weak economy," lamented Mr. Baradez.

But distrust was also put on the other side of the Atlantic. In New York, the Dow Jones yielded 1.17% and the Nasdaq 1.42% at mid-afternoon. U.S. investors are disappointed by showing the likely absence of a third wave of monetary easing in the United States. And even more worried that Europe too.

The private activity has continued to contract in March in the euro area, reflecting a return to recession in the first quarter, according to a second estimate of Wednesday's PMI purchasing managers. However, large disparities remain national: Italy and Spain are firmly entrenched in a recession in March. In Germany, growth slows and displays its lowest level in three months and in France, business retreats for the first time in four months.

The Spanish case also weighed on trade after the failure of a bond issue that has made borrowing rates soaring. Given the very difficult economic situation of the country, "investors are skeptical that Madrid can meet its deficit target to 5.3% of GDP this year," said Duarte Caldas IG Markets.

Overseas, the slowdown in hiring in the private sector in March was just played on the trend, stakeholders still waiting with some optimism the official report on employment on Friday. The increased activity in services in the U.S. slowed in March, but it is still the 27th consecutive month of expansion in the sector, given that the threshold of 50 points marks the boundary between growth and contraction activity.

All values ​​of the CAC 40 finished in the red. The cyclical industry, the most susceptible to cyclical, has paid a heavy price to concerns about growth in Europe. Peugeot has lost 5.82% to 10.77 euros, Lafarge 4.97% to 33.73 euros and Renault 4.46% to 37.26 euros.

Enhanced lending capacity of bailout funds in the euro area would reassure markets, which are not persuaded that the debt crisis is over and fear of further declines in ratings, estimates Klaus Regling, who heads the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF).

"More money would reassure markets, wrongly or rightly, large numbers subside," said Regling, in an interview published Sunday by the German magazine Focus.

Finance ministers of the euro area (Eurogroup) will meet in Copenhagen on 30 and 31 March to decide whether to increase the lending capacity of the bailout mechanism euro area.

That of the EFSF is 500 billion euros. 

Der Spiegel reported on its side that German Chancellor Angela Merkel, strongly opposed to increased firepower of European aid mechanism, is currently changing his opinion, con frequency of pressure from its European partners and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

According to Spiegel, Merkel and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble agreed that the EFSF and its successor the European Stability Mechanism (MES), could both be operational during a transitional period. 

Two possibilities are being studied: group the 500 billion euros of MES with 200 billion euros of EFSF already set aside for Greece, Portugal and Ireland; combine EFSF and MY ability to reach a loan of 940 billion euros.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Finance would not comment on the Spiegel article but said, about the Eurogroup meeting at the end of the month: "Discussions are continuing but we were hopeful that a solution will materialize at the Copenhagen meeting, which satisfies everyone. "

'The bailouts did not cost a penny to Germany. The idea that money is lost forever is false, they are ready, to be repaid, "argues his side Regling, adding that Germany has benefited from the crisis in the euro area, to the extent that borrowing costs have fallen

.

Groupama, forced to sell assets to strengthen its financial solvency, announced Thursday an annual net loss of 1.81 billion euros, its accounts have been sealed by heavy dice depreciations linked to the crisis.

The mutual insurer said in a statement on spending in fiscal 2011 to 3 billion euros of writedowns and exceptional losses, including $ 1.55 billion on Greek sovereign debt.

In late 2011, its equity capital amounted to EUR 5.3 billion against 7.0 billion a year earlier.

Groupama has sold its subsidiary EUROCOURTAGE and its activities in Britain.

European shares widen their losses Tuesday mid-session, and Wall Street should also open in downturn, fears of an economic slowdown in China and Europe, prompting investors to reduce their risk exposure.

In Paris, around 12:30 pm, the CAC 40 lost 1.48% (51.77 points) to 3435 points. London yields 1.00% and Frankfurt was down 1.43%. The pan-European FTSEurofirst index yields 1.29% to 1,066 points, its lowest in a week.

The values ​​of the automobile are among the largest declines. The European sector index losing 2.5%, weighed down primarily by PSA Peugeot Citroen.

PSA loses more than 4.4% in the Paris Stock Exchange after the announcement of the terms of the capital increase of a billion launched after its alliance with General Motors. The French group also announced it would not pay a dividend this year.

Traders also cited a market rumor that the Greek debt restructuring will not occur until next week. Athens has denied any extension of time debt exchange, planned for Thursday, but it is unclear what level of participation in this proceeding, which should enable ; Greece to delete some 100 billion euros of debt as part of its second aid package of 130 billion euros.

Monday, Athens had expressed its willingness to force private creditors to take losses on their debt as Greek, saying the agreed discount of 53.5% on face value of their shares was the best offer they can expect.

The rating agency has again lowered the credit rating of Greece, "C", which corresponds to an almost certain risk of default. Moody's in New York.

The U.S. rating agency Moody's said Friday night that lowered the credit rating of Greece to "Ca" to "C" to reflect the launch of the restructuring of public debt in Athens. This operation "entails expected losses of more than 70% for investors" who will participate, Moody's wrote in a statement.

Moody's assigns a "C", the lowest possible rating on its classification as it deems to borrowers on the edge of default, while a rating of "Ca" she attributed so far to the Greek public debt corresponds to the speculative issuers in which the failure seems likely. The agency says that in his view, the swap of debt proposed by the Greek government to its private sector creditors, whose success is imperative to allow "the provision [of Athens] a additional financial assistance of the euro area "will return, if completed, a" default "on" Greek government ". The agency was then referred to the new European rescue plan providing 130 billion euros of aid set in motion Thursday.

Its rival Standard & Poor's lowered the credit rating Monday of Greece to "SD", a level corresponding to "selective default", to reflect the debt erase operation launched three days earlier. S & P said it planned to raise the rating to CCC of the country, which she attributed to poor quality of issuers with a real risk of default, where such operation would have been fully completed, probably in mid- in March.

This is not the case of Moody's, which does not assign "perspective" to the Greek note, sign it refuses to speculate on what could be its evolution after the debt swap consumed. "Regarding the future, the program of the European Union and the proposed debt exchange will reduce the debt burden for Greece, but the risk of default of the country will remain high even after this exchange has been completed, "the agency wrote.  

"Moody's believes that Greece still faces challenges in the medium term solvency: the ratio of public debt to GDP is well above 100% for several years," the statement added.

Restructuring launched Feb. 24 to allow Greece to obtain a cancellation of debt of 107 billion euros. Athens proposes to give private creditors participating in the operation of securities worth less than 53.5% of those they currently hold. A quarter of those titles that creditors will receive bonds from the European Stability (EFSF), presumably with a maximum maturity of two years. The rest will consist of new Greek bonds with maturities ranging from 11 to 30 years, a period much greater than those they replace. Because interest rates that will yield these securities loss to creditors should be around 73%.

Group management Peugeot Citroën confirmed Wednesday that alliance projects from an article by LaTribune.fr evoking discussions in the finals with General Motors.

After had tried to ally with Japan's Mitsubishi, having denied rumors of a partnership with Fiat, PSA Peugeot Citroen acknowledged Wednesday review "projects of cooperation and alliances" but did not specify with whom the French group was under discussion. These statements came as the site reported Tuesday LaTribune.fr advanced negotiations for a marriage with General Motors. The U.S. giant has also refused to confirm specific talks, merely referring to regular discussions with automakers.

The site is LaTribune.fr meanwhile status talks between General Motors and PSA "started several months ago" and "entered their final phase." He cites a confidential source that these discussions are "advanced" and are "an alliance, not ad hoc cooperation." They "have not yet been successful, there is no agreement at this stage," said the source.

Finding the right partner

PSA has denied rumors in January in the Italian press for a merger with Italy's Fiat-Chrysler. But the new director of the brands is the French sector, Frederic Saint-Geours, had indicated that PSA was "quite open" to the idea of ​​a marriage, provided "the right partner." "For now, there is no alliance in progress", he added.

Two years ago, PSA had attempted to ally with Japan's Mitsubishi, but the operation had failed. The project was buried in March 2010. The press then reported a reluctance on the Peugeot family, which holds 30.3% stake to 45.74% of voting rights. Sales of French number one industry, and number two in Europe, suffered in 2011 from the poor health of the European car market.

PSA wants to expand internationally. But there is lack of funding and somewhat isolated on the world stage, in front of Volkswagen, GM, Toyota or Nissan Alliance, said LaTribune.fr. Partner with the world number one what General Motors, which posted record profits last year, could be a solution, according to the website.

An announcement could be made in early March at the Motor Show of Geneva, according LaTribune.fr.

Finance ministers of the euro area, meeting in Brussels last night, finally managed to agree on a rescue plan of record 237 billion euros. Financial markets themselves remain cautious. Record bailout for Greece

The euro area has decided to forceps Tuesday a new record bailout, potentially reaching 237 billion euros for Greece in the hope of avoiding the release of the Monetary Union without allay concerns about future of the country.

The agreement came in the night after more than thirteen hours of negotiations between the Finance Ministers of the monetary union, during one of those crisis meetings in Brussels with the euro area is now used. The agreement must "secure the future of the country in the euro area," he told reporters their leader, Jean-Claude Juncker, while many economists believe the country is doomed to end to leave .

European Commissioner for Economic Affairs, Olli Rehn, told him of a "real chance to make a fresh start" and "an essential step for Greece and the euro area". The aid package includes a component from a public assistance, loans-mainly-to the tune of 130 billion euros until the end of 2014, after an initial program of support for the country decided May 2010 had already reached 110 billion euros. This has proved insufficient. The IMF should be involved, but making less than in previous aid plans. It will take a decision in March.  

The other aspect concerns a debt relief of Greece held by private creditors, banks and investment funds. They must accept a loss of 53.5% in the final on the face value of their Greek claims, is an increased effort from the original target was 50%. This should reduce the country's debt amounting to 107 billion euros, a record in world economic history. This exceeds by far the effect of debt restructuring of Argentina, which reached $ 82 billion (73 billion euros during the day) when she failed in January 2002. With this support plan, Greece should be able to cope with a maturity of 14.5 billion euros which falls on March 20 and thus avoid default. Provided however, that banks respond in sufficient numbers to call.  

Athens said he was "very satisfied" with the result. The Greek government had fulfilled its part of the paper the contract by complying with the requirements of its creditors. It adopted a new austerity plan at the cost of violent street protests and renewed political turbulence and will have to quickly firm up the first steps, in token of good will, to see the money reach him. A savings plan painful 3.3 billion euros this year was passed, providing for a reduction in the minimum wage and a limitation of pensions in particular.

Financial markets remain cautious

But if negotiations dragged on, is that the major funders of Greece have hit on a hole of several billion euros to bridge towards reducing Greece's debt to 120% of GDP by 2020. It is the goal set by the International Monetary Fund to consider that it is sustainable in the long term. In the end, the bailout will reduce the Greek debt to the tune of 120.5% by 2020. To achieve this, banks will not only make a greater effort. The government also will have to put a little more hands in their pockets, by reducing interest rates of loans already contracted to Greece and, for central banks in the euro area, by participating in the effort. Greece will in return be further strengthened supervision on the part of creditors, the European Commission in particular, to ensure it does not deviate from the targets.

The negotiations were also made difficult by the fact that many countries are skeptical, despite repeated promises, the ability of Greece to make the necessary reforms, especially as the forthcoming parliamentary elections are likely to reshuffle the cards. The country itself is undermined by the economic recession, with five consecutive years of decline in gross domestic product, and the population is increasingly difficult to accept successive budget cuts demanded by creditors.

Financial markets have reacted cautiously. The euro rose against the dollar and the Japanese yen on Tuesday. But European shares open in equilibrium. Many economists doubt that the new rescue plan is the final chapter of the Greek crisis, and therefore the debt crisis that has shaken the euro area for over two years. They regret that it is turned toward fiscal restraint and not to revive growth in a country that could, in the eyes of many, to "die healed." "The Greek plan remains fragile and vulnerable. Even with this agreement, Greece still has most of its problems ahead, not behind it," warns Sony Kapoor, Director of Studies Centre Re-Define. The head of the Bruegel Institute is even more pessimistic, believing that the plan does not doubt "that extend the deadline fatal". "Greece will not implement austerity promised and will end up ultimately having to decide to leave the euro or to be pushed to the exit," he considers.