European shares start up, hopes on Greece

Posted by admin on February 17th, 2012

European shares start up Friday, continuing a rebound started the day late in the session, in the wake of Wall Street and Asian markets as investors regained confidence in the ability of Greece to get its second aid plan and avoid a disorderly default.

The euro area provides the finishing touches on a second aid plan for Greece so that the finance ministers can approve Monday, European officials said.

At 9:22, the CAC 40 index is 1.02% to 3,427.77 points, having pressed upon opening the pivot points of 3410.

The Euro Stoxx 50 gained 0.91%, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange 0.7% and 0.4% in London. 

The financial and cyclical stocks are leading gains in Europe, including a gain of more than 3% for SG. Lafarge gained nearly 4% after its results and the announcement of a 14% reduction of its debt.

Meanwhile, the cost of borrowing from Italy and Spain fall in the bond market, thereby enhancing

yield spreads with those of Germany.

Wall Street ends up slightly, pending Greece

Posted by admin on February 8th, 2012

Wall Street finished slightly higher Wednesday in anticipation of a possible breakthrough in the Greek case, the Dow is now at its highest and four-year high yesterday.

The latter won 0.04% or 5.75 points, to 12,883.95. The S & P-500, wider, took 2.91 points, or 0.22%, to 1349.96. The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 11.78 points on his side of (0.41%) to 2,915.86.

Tuesday, the Dow finished at its highest level since May 2008, focused since late 2011 by the actions of central banks to support economic activity and by a series of macro-é U.S. ECONOMIC deemed favorable.

The three party leaders of the Greek government coalition are currently meeting to try to agree on the reforms demanded by donors in Athens in return for a second ; help me plan. 

The President of the Eurogroup, Jean-Claude Juncker, said Wednesday in a statement it had convened a meeting of finance ministers of the eurozone on Thursday in Brussels, meeting that should show up decide the outline of the new aid plan for Athens.

The leaders of the European Central Bank (ECB) remain divided on the potential contribution of the central bank to restructure Greek debt, two sources said on Wednesday the euro area.

"It will be a long and difficult process, as it has been from the beginning, but market participants want to see further," said Tim Ghriskey, Investment Officer at Solaris Asset Management , about the cautious optimism prevailing among market players. 

The Dow Jones jumped 21% since the beginning of October and again 80% of the ground lost during the down cycle covering the period 2007-early 2009. The benchmark index of Wall Street is now only 10% of its historic high reached in October 2007.

Energy stocks weighed on the coast after U.S. crude has erased its gains in the wake of the announcement of an increase in stocks of crude oil and gasoline States United, with the sector index yielding 0.55% and 0.64% ExxonMobil to 85.32 dollars.

The action Walt Disney rose 0.71% to 41.27 dollars after the media group has reported better than expected quarterly results.

The title Polo Ralph Lauren soared 9.18% to 171.49 dollars after better than expected quarterly figures of the clothing manufacturer, who also revised upwards its margin guidance. 

The action McDonald's has sold 0.85% to 100.05 dollars despite the announcement of a more-than-expected global sales of restaurants open at least a year better than expected in January.

The title Time Warner took 0.03% to 38.11 dollars after the media group released a better than expected quarterly profit, thanks to its re ; cable networks and franchises of the last episode of Harry Potter.

Of the 315 companies that, before the close of Wall Street, have published their quarterly figures, 61.0% reported better than expected results.

Greece: the euro zone is getting impatient

Posted by admin on February 5th, 2012

Finance ministers of the euro area have indicated to Greece Saturday they could not give the green light to restructure its debt held by the private sector in the absence of guarantees on measures deemed necessary to the granting of a second international aid plan.

The ministers hoped to meet Monday to finalize the second aid package of 130 billion euros to be implemented by mid-March to avoid a bankruptcy of Public Accounts but the appointment was postponed because of reluctance to engage in Athens in favor of the reforms demanded. The meeting was replaced by a conference call.

"All participants of the conference sent a clear message to the Greeks: that's enough," said a member of the Eurogroup. "There are a lot of frustration because they are dragging their feet."

"They have to decide and start talking honestly, decisively and quickly with the troika of program aspects that remain to be finalized, such as tax reforms and those of the Labour Code , "he added.

The troika, consisting of representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Commission and European Central Bank, has prepared a plan to restructure Greek debt which depends on the granting of the second aid plan.

VENIZELOS POINTED FINGER

The private sector should accept a discount of around 70% of its obligations under the debt exchange program. This will help to lower than 100 billion euros of debt of Greece, which currently represents 160% of its gross domestic product (GDP).

International creditors demanded that the Greek parliamentary parties agree on including a decrease in the minimum wage and a reduction in premiums paid leave in the private sector but Athens fears a deepening recession and social movements.

Finance ministers from the eurozone believe further that their Greek counterpart Evangelos Venizelos cares more about elections in April that the financial situation.

"There are a lot of frustration regarding the Minister Venizelos, which is very difficult to mobilize because he is busy with the campaign for the leadership of PASOK. IT is not available to meet with members of the troika.

"He prepares his own political future, rather than his country," lamented the head of the Eurogroup.

The interested party has meanwhile spoke of "great anticipation and great pressure not only from the three institutions that make up the troika, but also from the states of the euro area". Evangelos Venizelos has also recognized that the call had been "very difficult".

"The moment is critical. All must be concluded before tomorrow night," he said.

Jean-Claude Juncker, Eurogroup President, has meanwhile not ruled out the possibility of bankruptcy of the Greek government accounts. "If we were to establish that everything went wrong in Greece, there would be no new program (aid) and it would mean that they should declare himself bankrupt in March" , he said.

Remove the relief of charges to destroy a million jobs

Posted by admin on February 3rd, 2012

Between 400,000 and 1.1 million jobs would be destroyed in a few years if we removed all the relief employer contributions on low wages, a study by the Treasury. A sardine canning factory near Porto

Between 400,000 and 1.1 million jobs would be destroyed in a few years if we removed all the relief employer contributions on low wages, according to a study document issued by the Ministry of Labour. This document commits only the authors (DARES and officials to the Treasury) attempts to assess the employment effects of reduced social charges on low wages conducted since 1993.

In the first scenario (with the assumption that the tax has a high impact), it is "from 550,000 to 1,100,000 jobs would be destroyed." In a second case (where yields effects on employment would have been reduced by half), the estimate is between 400,000 and 800,000 jobs. Implementation of relief "had a clear impact on the evolution of the relative cost of labor at minimum wage." The "very substantial reduction in the relative cost of labor at the minimum wage was accompanied by a stabilization of the share of unskilled employment in total employment," the authors observe.

Over the period 1993-1997, the relief "would have to create or save between 200,000 and 400,000 jobs." A net cost per job of relief (that accounts for employee social security contributions and lower spending of welfare benefits and unemployment benefits) "between 8,000 and 28,000 euros," the study said. In 2009, the relief arrangements in employer payroll taxes on low wages represented a gross cost of € 22.2 billion for the state.

These devices are the result of "two great waves of relief", the first since 1993 to reduce labor costs in the vicinity of the minimum wage (relief "Balladur" then "Juppé"). The second from 1998, to offset the impact on labor costs of the implementation of 35 hours and then the unification of the different scales of relief ("Loi Fillon" of 2003). Studies of the 2003 law "suggests that the additional cuts over the period 2003-2005 has broadly offset the negative impact on employment of upward convergence of minimum wages from the RTT."

The study authors do not venture, however, to accurately assess the effects of devices on wages, existing studies are sometimes contradictory.

Posted by admin on November 23rd, 2011

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has extended its credit instruments Tuesday and announced the creation of a new liquidity line to six months to support the country weakened by the European budget crisis.

The IMF said that the new line Precaution and Liquidity would act as "insurance against future shocks and as a window for short-term liquidity to meet the needs."

This new line will provide access to liquidity to finance six months, up to five times the quota of the member country concerned, and may also be used as part of an arrangement for a period of 12 to 24 months with this time access up to 10 times the quota of the country.

The IMF also created a new Financial Instrument for Rapid countries with balance of payments is facing urgent needs due to "external shocks" such as natural disasters.

"We acted quickly and the new instruments will respond more quickly and efficiently for the benefit of all members (IMF)," said Executive Director of the IMF, Christine Lagarde said in a statement.

The BoJ maitient the status quo and lowers outlook

Posted by admin on November 16th, 2011

The Bank of Japan announced the continued existence of its monetary policy while lowering its outlook, saying fear the repercussions of the crisis of European sovereign debt.

The main rate of the BoJ remains at 0.1%.

Posted by admin on November 5th, 2011

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou won the vote of confidence from Parliament. It is currently negotiating with the President of the Republic to establish a new coalition government he will lead probably not. Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou (right) won the vote of confidence from Parliament Friday, November 4th by 153 votes out of 298 votes.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou won Saturday early morning the confidence of parliament after a week of psychodrama in the euro area, paving the way for the preparation of a coalition government, he will not probably not.George Papandreou, who received 153 votes out of 298 votes cast, was far from certain to survive the ordeal after the crisis that started in his own Socialist Party triggered by his attempt to impose a referendum to validate the European Plan aid to Greece.

"Saturday (noon), I will visit the President of the Republic so that we reach agreement on the composition of a consensus government and even of who will direct it," he said in parliament . Paradoxically, the vote of confidence should allow it to go head up, after the panic created earlier this week on global financial markets with its announcement of the referendum and the anger of the country's creditors who curtly summoned for threatening cut off the country.

"I never saw politics as a profession," said Mr.

Europe rejects plan to restructure SeaFrance

Posted by admin on October 24th, 2011

The European Commission on Monday rejected the restructuring plan of the shipping company SeaFrance Channel, a subsidiary of SNCF, saying it violated European competition rules because the company has not sufficiently contributed to this program.

"Despite repeated requests from the Commission, France has been able to demonstrate that the financial contribution of the company was exempt from state aid and reflected market confidence about its future viability." we read in a statement.

The EC had announced in late June to review the proposed recapitalization to the tune of 223 million euros SeaFrance by SNCF.

Italy and Spain in the heart of European discussions

Posted by admin on October 22nd, 2011

Italy and Spain were Saturday under intense pressure from their peers in the euro area to reassure their determination to keep public finances under control and show the market they will not be used to support fund the euro.

Finance ministers from the euro area and EU met in Brussels last Friday afternoon to prepare the ground for their leaders before the summit on Sunday and Wednesday that will lead to a formula to multiply the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF ) and give it sufficient capacity to help countries like Italy or Spain.

But senior sources involved in the discussions reported that several countries, including Germany, wanted to ensure that this would not fall back pressure on the Italian government to implement ambitious reforms.

"There will be more riding.No country will receive free aid, and certainly not Italy, "said one source.

"When the ECB started to buy the Italian debt in August, Rome was immediately released in its efforts, of which there is no wonder that there is a total lack of confidence of the Germans to (Silvio) Berlusconi right now, "she added.

The Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero has also been invited to travel to Brussels on Saturday evening to meet other European leaders including Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, and President the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet and the Executive Director of the IMF Christine Lagarde, said two diplomats.

ITALY

German Chancellor insisted on Saturday that Italy would reduce its debt so as not to jeopardize the support mechanisms for the euro and called Spain also redouble our efforts.

"If they do nothing to their budgets, they still have a debt equal to 120% (of GDP), such as Italy, while the height of the bunds will not matter because it will not help in any market to regain confidence, "she told members of his party.

"Spain has already done much but it will do more to restore market confidence," she added.

The European Commission said on Friday that Italy should take significant steps to boost growth, specify some of the savings measures announced in September and publish a calendar.

"There is no pressure but a strong incentive to do so," said at the time a spokesman for the Commission.

According to European sources, the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, would not exclude to present an action plan

Italy remains under strong market pressure.Italian government bonds reached Friday to their highest level since August before falling when traders reported purchases of debt from the ECB on the secondary market.

SPAIN

Spain, the fourth largest economy in the euro area, is also under the spotlight because of concerns about its ability to meet its objectives of deficits and implement reforms to improve competitiveness and productivity.

The country will this year one of the largest deficits in the euro area, but he pledged to reduce it to 6% of GDP, against 9.3% in 2010.

The government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has already reduced the salaries of civil servants, frozen social spending, reform its banking sector and introduced a "golden rule" in its fiscal constitution.

While these measures have been applauded by the other members of the euro area, they also expect that the socialist government, which trails by 17 points in the polls for the elections of November 20, reassures its ability to control spending in the autonomous regions.

"In Spain, the uncertainty is not so much about the government but rather the level of local politics, which could slow the process," said a European source.

In Brussels, the Spanish Minister of Economy, Elena Salgado, said Madrid had no intention to introduce new measures.

"Not for a moment (…) We have adopted a number of measures: for reform of the constitution of laws to prevent a financial sector restructuring n'impacte the deficit," she said Friday, adding that plans for financial stability had also been issued for the regions.

France is preparing to revise its growth forecast

Posted by admin on October 21st, 2011

France is preparing to revise its growth forecast for 2012, currently set at 1.75% of GDP, writes Le Figaro Friday, citing a source within the government.

The announcement would follow the warning earlier this week by the rating agency Moody's on the signing of the French debt and that made Thursday by Germany, to review its own growth forecast for the year year.

Economists on average expect a French growth around 0.9% of GDP in 2012.

"We know that we are above the consensus of economists and we are prepared to adapt and make the necessary budgetary measures, as did the Germans," says the government source quoted by Le Figaro.

The decision to review the press the growth forecast for 2012 is little doubt but France has yet to define the timing and scope of this review, writes Le Figaro.

Moody's announced that it would evaluate within three months the stability of the Aaa rating enjoyed by the French sovereign debt and allows France to borrow at lower cost in the financial markets.

This period of three months should assess the impact on French public finances of an agreement – or lack of understanding – of the countries in the euro area over the settlement of the debt crisis in general and the Greek problem in particular.

The topic will be the focus of European Council discussions on Sunday, which means to increase the power of the European financial stability and improve European governance should be the order of the day, and a plan recapitalization of European banks.

Francois Fillon said this week that the austerity measures it announced in August, based on a growth forecast of 1.75% next year, would still be effective for growth of around 1.5 %.

The prime minister did not rule out the need to introduce more rigor in the event that growth in France would be even lower.

The government has committed a reduction of tax loopholes to allow France to achieve its objectives to reduce its public deficit to 4.5% of GDP in 2012, 3% in 2013 and 2% in 2014.


Copyright ©