Financial News Headlines

OpinionWay poll for Le Figaro and LCI, 57% of French people say they are against an increase in VAT. Other measures announced by Nicolas Sarkozy are they rather welcome. The standard VAT rate will increase on 1 October from 19.6% to 21.2% to compensate for 13 billion euros of lower employer contributions, announced Sunday, January 29 Nicolas Sarkozy a majority of French (57%) are against an increase in VAT in return for lower social security contributions, but approves other measures announced Sunday night by President Nicolas Sarkozy, according to a survey OpinionWay-Fiducial for Le Figaro and LCI released Tuesday soir.28% of respondents are "totally opposed" to "lower burdens on wages and, in turn, the increase in VAT by 1.6" and 29% are "somewhat opposed" .42% in however, support this measure (15% "quite" 27% "fairly positive"). 1% is silent pas.La proposal of the Head of State VAT increase is accompanied by a decrease in payroll taxes. The requirement for companies with more than 250 employees have at least 5% of young people in training is approved at 90%, creating a tax on financial transactions to 77%. 65% approve of "the possibility for social partners to negotiate agreements within each enterprise to define, for example working time of employees," 53% "higher than 30% of construction rights on any ground." For Moreover, Nicolas Sarkozy is preferred to Francois Hollande for "lead France" (39% against 32%, 28% said "neither"), "reduce the debt of France" (35% against 27%, "no of the two "37%)," reform France "(34% against 30%," neither "to 35%)," to get France out of the crisis "(31% against 26%," neither "42%). The socialist candidate prevails over the incumbent president when it comes to" bring the French "(38% against 18%" neither "to 43%). Study conducted on 30 and 31 January with a sample of 1097 people representative of the French population aged 18 and older, interviewed online and constituted under the quota method.

The French Building Federation says the crisis and the austerity measures will be expensive jobs. Last year, the sector had created 9000, after losing 20,000 in 2010. Volume, the activity is expected to fall 1.9% in 2012, after increasing 1.2% in 2011 and fell 3.8% in 2010.

The construction sector is expected to lose 35,000 jobs in 2012 due to financial crisis and austerity, who "broke" the upturn in the sector in 2011, said Tuesday the French Federation of the building FFB. In 2011, the sector had the opposite created 9,000 jobs, after losing 20,000 in 2010, including acting."The crisis of public debt in euro area and fiscal adjustment policies have shattered the movement of bringing economic recovery and still bears a few months, the quantitative improvement of our markets," said the president of the FFB, Didier Ridoret at a press conference.

Volume, the activity is expected to fall 1.9% in 2012, after increasing 1.2% in 2011 and fell 3.8% in 2010, said Didier Ridoret. It is expected to decline in all areas, with a 2.8% decline in new housing, 1% in the nine non-residential housing, and 1.7% improvement in maintenance. While in 2008 and 2009 the use of the building had been "preserved", "dyke will drop" in 2012 with a script "close to that of year 1990, which will permanently affect the production system," warned the FFB.

The main European stock markets have returned to equilibrium in mid-session, while Milan and Athens rose more sharply and a rally promises to Wall Street, in the hope that Italy and Greece are quickly new governments and implement the necessary reforms.

The CAC 40 index yielded 0.08% at 3072.60 points around 24:15, after having started losing more than 2%, while the Euro Stoxx 50 took 0.19% and Milan fell by 0.48%.

As part of its Treasury bill auction, Italy has sold five billion euros in vouchers to 12 months, with a yield of 6.09%, its highest level since September 1997, against 3.57% in its previous auction which took place October 11.

Toyota reported Tuesday a 32% drop in its quarterly earnings and abandoned its forecast for annual profit, the impact of floods in Thailand completing disrupt a production line that is not yet fully recovered from the earthquake March 11.

The Japanese automaker also suffers from the strong yen, beating down the profitability of some 1.5 million vehicles exported each year and makes it less competitive with neighboring South Korea's Hyundai Motor.

Despite the unfavorable foreign exchange, Toyota said it did not intend to reduce its cut production, saying instead that he wanted to increase the share of domestic sales in total sales to offset the effect of force the yen.

The builder was particularly affected by flooding in Thailand disaster that claimed more than 500 dead, like Honda, which also dropped its earnings forecasts.

The three assembly plants of Toyota in the country are at a standstill since October 10 and will remain so until at least November 12.

Wall Street opened little changed on Thursday, the concern surrounding the European crisis of debt weighing on a market already made nervous by the earnings season.

Fifteen minutes after opening, the Dow Jones gained 0.2% (25 points) at 11,527 points.The Standard & Poor's, largest, took 0.2% (2.5 points) to 1212 points while the Nasdaq composite fell by 0.1% (2 points) to 2601 points.

Information from the German newspaper Die Welt, the German government that does not exclude the possibility of postponing the second time the EU summit scheduled on Sunday, has cooled investor sentiment, eager for Europe to find a plan to end the crisis.

In the process, senior sources directly involved in the preparation of the summit said they were unaware of such a project report.

Reports that the European Financial Stability (EFSF) may redeem the bonds on the secondary market under certain conditions are not sufficient to fully reassure the market.

Investors also monitor closely the earnings season that stand out far subdued. Microsoft will release its results include after-hours trading.

Yahoo gained 2.3% after asking that applicants interested in a takeover bid does not communicate with each other, while the group is probably too big to swallow for a single company, with the possible exception of Microsoft, whose title was down 0.5%.

EBay is losing more than 4% after yet announced a quarterly revenue up 32% and net profit in line with expectations of financial analysts.

The weekly jobless claims fell slightly last week in the United States at 403,000 against 409,000 the previous week and 400,000 expected.

Veolia Environnement has recently sold Eolfi Asset Management, his investment company specializing in the management of funds investing in solar and wind power, reported Monday the newspaper La Tribune.

Eolfi AM was purchased by its president and founder Alain Delsupexhe, which confirmed the operation but refused for now to communicate about the subject, the paper said.

Without specifying the amount of the transaction, a spokesman for Veolia told The Tribune qu'Eolfi, a subsidiary of Services Group had sold property investment company, which manages 113 million euros of assets, seeking Eolfi focus on its core business, the development of wind and solar projects.

No one was immediately available for comment at Veolia.

Oil prices have rebounded sharply Wednesday, closing up more than 5% in New York in favor of a sharp drop in crude reserves in the United States and the feeling that the European authorities are acting to strengthen the banking sector the region.

On the Nymex, the November contract on U.S. crude (WTI) finished with a gain of 4.01 dollars, or 5.3%, to 79.68 dollars a barrel.Meanwhile, Brent advanced 2.81% or 2.8 dollar to 102.59 dollars.

Black gold and breaks downward a series of three sessions, benefiting too, as European stock markets, movement of purchases with it.

The European finance ministers gathered in Luxembourg reached an agreement Tuesday aimed at protecting the banks in the region, while calls for a recapitalization of European banks have increased the margins of the meeting.

U.S. inventories of crude oil fell last week, said Wednesday the U.S. Agency for Energy Information (EIA). Crude oil inventories fell 4.68 million barrels to 336.28 million.Economists on average had expected a rise of 1.9 million barrels.

The number of Americans entering the unemployment fell to a low of five months last week, and growth figures for the second quarter were revised upward, leaving the markets expect a recession is ultimately not to fear.

The number of jobless rose to 391,000 last week, against 428,000 the one before, said Thursday the Labor Department. This figure is well above expectations, as economists on average had forecast 420,000 jobless.

The Labor Department noted, however, that its adjustments for seasonal variations may have overstated the decline in enrollment.Revised data will be published next Thursday with the first estimate figures this week.

Commerce has meanwhile announced that growth in gross domestic product (GDP) reached 1.3% in the second quarter, according to final figures.

Its previous estimate was counting on only 1.0% growth.So a return to the first estimate, which already provided 1.3% before being downgraded.

Analysts had expected an upward revision, but not as pronounced, with a final figure of 1.2%.

Consumer spending and the trade figures have finally proved better than expected.

GDP figures "suggest that the U.S. economy entered the third quarter in a position a little better.These encouraging news is reinforced by the decline more marked than expected jobless claims, which casts further doubt on the likelihood of a return to recession, "said Joe Manimbo, an analyst at Travelex Global Payments in Washington.

CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM

Political tensions between the United States the Democratic administration and the Republican side, a majority in the House of Representatives, coupled with the impact of the debt crisis in Europe, have eroded confidence and fears of a return of U.S. U.S. recession.

The cautious optimism of economists now expects a further contraction of GDP will be avoided.Production companies continue to grow because, although at a slower pace since the beginning of the recovery.

In detail, the revised figures show, in fact more of a slower growing economy as a future recession.

Export growth is better than initially estimated at 3.6% instead of 3.1%.That of imports, however, is lower at 1.4% against 1.9%.

The trade deficit is lower, and foreign trade contributed to GDP by 0.24 percentage point.

These data support Wall Street, which evolved up to 1600 GMT, while the dollar went further against the yen and the price of Treasuries retreated.

U.S. debt is regarded as a safe investment and attractive in times of uncertainty, but less coveted when the economy recovers.

All indicators are not provided to green the U.S., and the gloom is still required from contractors, according to a study by the Institute "Business Roundtable" and published on Thursday.

According to the report, the outlook for business had deteriorated for the third quarter, and the number of those planning to cut jobs over the next six months more than doubled, from 11% in the second quarter to 24%.

They are more than 65% against 87% three months ago, to provide an increase in sales and only 32% instead of 61% plan to increase their investments.

The insurer Lloyd's of London has suffered in the first half loss of 697 million pounds (one billion dollars, 800 million) due to an unprecedented amount of compensation for natural disasters, including earthquake and the tsunami of March 11 in Japan.

A year earlier, the insurer a profit of 628 million pounds.

Compensation totaled 6.7 billion pounds in the first half, the half of the more expensive 323-year history of Lloyd's.

Many insurers have recorded strong half-yearly losses due to recurring natural disasters, including earthquakes have account in New Zealand and flooding in Australia.

The year 2011 is currently the most severe natural disasters in compensation since 2005.In the first half, the overall compensation totaled $ 70 billion, according to Swiss Re, the second global reinsurer.

The new car registrations in Europe fell by 2.0% in July and increased 7.7% in August, announced Friday the Association of European Automobile Manufacturers (ACEA).

Over the period from January to August, sales were down 1.3% from the same period of 2010 to 8,888,793 units.

Germany is the only major European countries to have recorded an increase of two summer months, with increases of 9.9% and 18.3%.All other major countries – France, Britain, Italy and Spain – saw their sales fall in July and increase in August.

The number one European car Volkswagen was up 12.4% of sales in July jumped 14.4% in August, while the number two European, French PSA Peugeot Citroën sees his lower 9.8% in July and 0.1% in August.

Renault recorded declines of 12.2% and 3.1%.