Posts Tagged ‘online news’

November 18, 2011 - 7:52 am Comments Off

During the crisis, tensions continue. The markets had another busy day, Thursday: doubts about the ability of the euro area to overcome the debt crisis have sealed the shares. They weighed on bonds issued by France and Spain led to a further surge in rates especially Spanish and Italian in the secondary market – the debt of "opportunity." The French rate also rose, to a lesser extent, before new Italian bond purchases by the ECB do a general relaxation.

European capitals are still struggling to unite, despite these new turbulence. Or because of them. Thus, the debate on the role of the European Central Bank it off again with a vengeance payday loans.The ECB's independence is considered an insuperable line in a country that is traumatized by hyperinflation of the 1930s. For Berlin, the only way to restore confidence in the euro area is to institutionalize fiscal discipline. Changes in the European treaties must strengthen the powers of Brussels to punish offenders, said Angela Merkel.

The Chancellor reiterated Thursday its opposition to further action by the ECB. "The European treaties such as we see them do not give the ECB the opportunity to resolve these problems," she says.

No matter which option you are considering while doing comparisons of health insurance, you will still want to know you're getting the best price possible, so the easiest way to be sure that's happening is by getting quotes from a variety of health insurance companies.

October 28, 2011 - 1:40 pm Comments Off

The success of Uniqlo store in Paris, opened in 2009 near the Opera, gave wings to the patrons of the Japanese brand. "We want to open 10 to 20 stores in Paris as soon as possible," Le Figaro reveals Nobuo Doma, chief Europe and the United States of Fast Retailing, the Japanese group owner of Uniqlo, but also Comptoir des Cotonniers and Princesse Tam Tam . Uniqlo opened yesterday XXL version of his store of Defense, opened in 2007, whose size has increased from 200 to 2,000 square meters payday loans for self employed.

Among the addresses targeted next by the brand, working with the developer Unibail to deploy in France, are "the Champs-Elysées, the Rue de Rivoli, the Rue de Rennes and the Forum des Halles," said Nobuo Doma. Once these projects, Uniqlo will other cities "like Lyon."

Wall Street should be shaken

September 22, 2011 - 5:24 pm Comments Off

A new session promises to be eventful Thursday on Wall Street. Futures on the Dow Jones fell by 2.06% to 10,831 points, those on the Standard & Poor's let go of 2.23% to 1136.10 points and the Nasdaq lost 2.32% to 2208.20 points.

Like European and Asian stock markets, Wall Street should not escape the anxiety of investors pessimistic after the U.S. central bank on the global economy. The central bank has held that the U.S. economic recovery was "slow" and threatened by "high risk".

For this, the Fed announced an operation to extend the maturity of the assets it holds up to 400 billion dollars by June 2012."One can interpret this decision by the Fed as the will not to launch a" quantitative easing "3 (monetary easing to boost the U.S. economy) in the immediate future, says Arnaud Poutiers, executive vice president of IG Markets short term personal loan. Indeed, "Operation Twist" is intended to influence the long bond rate, but without increasing the size of the Fed's balance sheet, so without creating money ".

On the currency markets, the euro continued to sink against the dollar: the euro back below the $ 1.35 (-0.91%).

On the corporate side, Moody's lowered the credit ratings of Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup. The agency that the state may fly to their rescue.

United Technologies will buy the equipment for Goodrich Aircraft $ 16.5 billion (12.2 billion euros) in cash, a transaction that would be the largest acquisition of U.S. industrial giant in 10 years.

FedEx has reported an EPS according to the consensus of $ 1.46 per share in the first quarter, a turnover of 10.52 billion dollars (against the consensus of 10.32 billion dollars).

Doubts about financing of Societe Generale in Libya

September 6, 2011 - 11:04 am Comments Off

New blow for Societe Generale. While the second French bank is particularly turbulent stock market since the beginning of the summer, with a share price halved in three months, she has to face new suspicions. After the unfounded rumors about the supposed risks of bankruptcy, after questioning by U.S. authorities in a fraud complaint on subprime, Societe Generale now sees its relationship with the Gaddafi regime scrutinized. The new Libyan authorities are looking into effect on the investment made by the French bank with the Libyan sovereign fund, the Libyan Investment Authority, reports the Wall Street Journal. Some of these funds would have landed in the hands of people close to the government in place, the paper said.Societe Generale would have paid a certain amount to a Panamanian company, Leinad to help manage and advise an investment fund of one billion dollars in 2008. If the exact mission of Leinad is not yet clear, its role has at least been criticized by members of the Libyan sovereign fund, before the start of the Libyan revolt, the newspaper said cash till payday advance.

For now, the bank declined to comment on its relations with the sovereign fund Leinad or Libya, says the Wall Street Journal. Societe Generale however, that it has "worked occasionally with financial intermediaries in countries where it is not directly present."And these consultants are "fully selected and monitored in accordance with our procedures and ethics with the law and in full transparency with the customer," said the group, some have "acted in full accordance with the laws and regulations the sovereign ".

Throughout the reign of Colonel Gaddafi, it was indeed common for large groups pay foreign intermediaries, advisors and consultants to do business with Libya.

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The Paris Bourse is stepping up its gains

August 13, 2011 - 2:20 pm Comments Off

European stock exchanges succeed they continue their rebound started the day before? Nothing is less certain on Friday morning, when the index in Paris fell into the red immediately after opening up 0.17%. Ten minutes after the opening, the Paris index yields 1.59% to 3040.59 points. This movement of yoyo ends around noon, while the Paris index posting a gain of 2.64% to 3170 points. For the week, the CAC is still lost 3.6%.

Elsewhere, Frankfurt and London markets opened in the red. But as in Paris, they found the colors in the late morning. Frankfurt gained 1.63%, 0.95% London, Madrid and Milan 2.30% 1.63%. For its part, the Swiss progressed from 3.61%.

Thursday, ACC closed up 2.59% to 3089.66 points, after falling in mid-session. The day before, he had plunged more than 5%.The same volatility dominates in Frankfurt the Dax closed Thursday up 3.28% and in London where the FTSE-100 index gained 3.11%.

Investors should prove once again nervous at the end of a week marked by extreme market volatility, which saw the CAC 40 push the psychological threshold of 3000 points during trading Thursday before returning to the colors. Investors were reassured by the announcement of a meeting between Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on August 16 to issue joint proposals on the governance of the euro area. In addition, U.S. markets were supported by two good indicators of the jobless and real estate. Wall Street has ended sharply higher: the Dow Jones has gained 4% and the Nasdaq 4.69%.

Despite the ban on short selling in the securities of eleven banks and insurance companies to counter the extreme volatility of the stock market values. Still, banking stocks are still abused in the image of BNP Paribas, which issued a statement Thursday night to reaffirm the strength of its capital, Societe Generale and Credit Agricole fast cash loans.

No growth in the second quarter

On the macroeconomic front, INSEE reported this morning from zero growth in the second quarter in France (0.0%), against an increase of 0.9% in the first quarter. Inflation also slowed: the consumer prices fell by 0.4% in July, resulting in an increase of 1.9% over the year (against 2.1% from June 2010 to June 2011 ).

Oil is, meanwhile, resumed its decline in trade in Asia, having recovered Thursday in the United States.In morning trading, a barrel of "light sweet crude" lost 47 cents to 85.25 dollars and that of Brent North Sea fell by 57 cents to 107.45 dollars.

Other values ​​to follow, Carrefour pulls out of the game: the title ahead of 3.32% to 18.53 euros. U.S. giant Wal-Mart have mandated UBS to investigate the acquisition of the Brazilian subsidiary of French retailer, according to Reuters citing a source familiar with the matter.

Goldman Sachs lowered its recommendation on Lafarge (-0.62% to 28,835 euros) and withdrew the title from its list of recommended values ​​in priority to the purchase.The intermediary has instead built his list to Saint-Gobain (0.55% to 32.975 euros) and Vinci (-0.30% to 34.36 euros).

Europacorp (0.63% to 3.22 euros), the production company of Luc Besson, Thursday reaffirmed its goal of a return to balance for the current year, despite a sharp decline its turnover in the first quarter.

Derichebourg (-1.05% to 3.489 euros) Thursday confirmed its target of improving its annual net income, after recording a sharp increase in sales over the first nine months of the year.

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Why the threat of recession resurfaced

August 5, 2011 - 8:40 pm Comments Off

And if the economy plunged again? That fear surfaced today. Known for his pessimistic views on the global economy, economist Nouriel Roubini estimates that 40% the risk of "double dip", that is to say a return to recession. If this scenario, already mentioned last year, did not materialize, the current situation shows signs of concern. The effects of stimulus faded, and the engine of the U.S. as European economies seem to have trouble turning on its own. The failure of growth is emerging as a threat even bigger than the Western states can no longer afford indebted to put out the fires with new stimulus packages in case of an attack.

A series of statistical alarmantesL'alerte has been given in recent weeks with the publication of leading indicators sharply lower.These statistics take the pulse of the economy before the publication of official statistics, always at the wrong time. Most of these indices is followed by the "PMI", which measures the purchasing managers' sentiment. Specifically, investigators asked each month to businesses if they have more or less bought industrial supplies, for example, the previous month.

The PMI U.S. and euro area are on the verge of decline (50.9 points in July to the first, 51.1 for the second in June). Also very disturbing, the same indicator for China reflects a decline in activity, below 50 at 49.3 points. HSBC, which makes this index, however, relativize the seriousness of the situation: if an indicator below 50 reveals a contraction of a month to month, production is up 11% to 13% on a year China.

Still, the euro area is expected in the coming months to join the Asian giant below that fateful 50-point, fears BNP Paribas. Business in France and Germany, the main drivers of European growth has indeed slowed, while in the peripheral countries (Greece, Portugal ,…), indicators already show signs of a recession.

"The deterioration results from several factors: a weakened global growth, an environment full of uncertainty and, above all, renewed tensions in the markets, analyzing Ken Wattret, economist at BNP Paribas. Past crises teach us here that periods of great uncertainty and market pressures are accompanied by very low investment by business. "

ECB optimistic, but not market

Jean-Claude Trichet was still wanted optimistic Thursday.He believes that "we could see very strong growth in the fourth quarter" in the eurozone. And even if "the second quarter, of course, much less supported than the first, was amazing," he added. Economists are however a lot more gray horizon. In the eurozone, BNP Paribas expects growth halved in the third quarter to 0.4%, and a "modest rebound" to 0.4% by year end.

The latest statistics released on Friday in the euro zone are showing signs contradictory. German industrial production fell 1.1% in June. In Italy, activity, sluggish early this year, has picked up modestly in the second quarter to 0.3%. However, the Spanish growth slowed from 0.3% in the first quarter to 0.2% in the second.

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The dollar, a victim of the slow pace of discussions

July 28, 2011 - 6:00 am Comments Off

The king of the foreign exchange market is losing its supremacy.The dollar, already eroded by the successive plans and massive injections of liquidity into the markets by the Fed to support the economy of the first power of the world crumbles at full speed: everyone sulking the greenback, while the scenario of a failure to pay the United States, powered by the impasse between Democrats and Republicans on increasing the amount of the debt of the federal state could be realized.

If the financial world does not seem to want to believe in a U.S. bankruptcy – the consequences for the global economy would be "very, very, very serious," according to Christine Lagarde at the IMF – is growing concern as the rating agencies, Moody's and Standard and Poor's head, threatening more and more seriously degrade the note of the long-term debt of the United States, currently at AAA – the highest rating possible."This fear that the U.S. lowered rating is increasingly based," said Andrea Tueni, market analyst at Saxo Bank. Combined with poor economic data, especially on the face of real estate and employment falling for several weeks across the Atlantic, such news would further loosen the dollar "as investors are less likely to buy bonds U.S. long-term because they are less safe and more expensive, "said the specialist.

The euro could rate to about $ 1.50 without the Greek case

Faced with a dollar that loses value, the other major currencies, they, climbing mechanically. This rise is not seen on the exchange rate euro / dollar as the euro, too, was abused by his sovereign debt issues."The Greek case far from over, the German finance minister has even admitted today that Europe will still have to meet to resolve the European crisis. This weighs on the euro, "argues Andrea Tueni.

So on Wednesday, the euro it suffers more the situation in Europe as the dollar is disadvantaged by the issue of U.S. debt, the euro yield 1% against the dollar at 1.4369 dollar. But yesterday, the euro was trading more than 1.45 dollars, registering an increase of almost 1%. "Right now, the problem Greek counterbalancing about the American problem, so that the euro / dollar remains relatively stable. Without the Greek case, the euro could move above $ 1.45 even reach $ 1.47, "predicts analyst.

The Swiss franc at record high

But for the other major currencies, the effect of the dollar's decline is palpable.Especially for currency called "safe haven" to which those investors are turning in uncertainty and fear when the market gains. As the yen or Swiss francs. Indeed, Japan is concerned that the yen is so strong: for a dollar, you are under 78 yen. Unheard of. In Switzerland, the situation is unprecedented: the Swiss franc is the highest in its history against the dollar, which fell to 0.7996 Swiss francs on Wednesday.

Such inflation of the currencies directly threatens the economies concerned, particularly exporters. In Switzerland, the economic research he expected slower economic growth in Switzerland over the coming months, corroborating the analysis of the ETH Zurich. The prospect of Swiss GDP growth for 2011 was reduced by the Ministry of Economy to 1.5% against 1.9% expected earlier.What revive the theme of the currency war.

Countries react to contain the surge of their currency

A new central bank intervention Swiss and Japanese is possible. How? By buying dollars to turn back the greenback, and therefore, lower than their money. This is precisely what would have done on Wednesday India's central bank, the agency Dow Jones, which is to prevent the rise of the rupee, at its highest in 35 months against the dollar. Other Asian Institutions designated having exercised the same operation in recent days.

Brazil's real has not been as strong since 1999 (at 1.53 reals to the dollar), when the country began to make its currency fluctuate. Since the beginning of the year, the Brazilian currency has appreciated by 8.08% vis-à-vis the dollar.In 2010, the real had appreciated 4.6% against the dollar and 32.7% in 2009 after falling 23.17% in 2008, the year of the global financial crisis. This outbreak is explained partly by the decline of the dollar, but especially the effects of "carry trade" that make the real rising: investors are the difference in interest rates between the United States from 0 to 0.25%, and Brazil, more than 12%. On Wednesday, the Brazilian government announced the strengthening of control and taxes – up to 25% – on the derivatives market. "I think that this measure will be less profitable speculation, and I hope it will bring down the real," said Guido Mantega, Brazilian Minister of Finance.

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The trade deficit hits new record

July 8, 2011 - 6:24 am Comments Off

On the international trade front, France patina. For the second time in two months, the trade deficit hit a bad record in May, -7.422 billion euros, according to figures released Thursday by the Customs. Year over year, he moved to -63.418 billion euros, against -51.558 billion in 2010.

The poor sales in May due in large part by higher energy bills in France, reflecting a rebound in imports of natural hydrocarbons. Imports, burdened by this trend, amounting to 41.601 billion euros in May, up 2.9% over three months. This figure was moderated by the slowdown of industrial imports.This, "due to lower aircraft and naval acquisitions and a decline in purchases of electronic equipment and pharmaceuticals, 'the customs.

At the same time, "industrial exports sag again," they note. Result, exports grew by only 0.9% over the last three months to reach 34.179 billion euros in May "The persistent decline in transport equipment (aircraft in May, car in April) weighs on the trend," within Customs.

"Aérodépendance"

Important position in sales abroad, but very volatile, aviation fell 6.2% over the month."We had one the last two months show some" aérodépendance "of France, aerospace accounts for more than 10% of French exports and any slowdown in performance has a very significant effect on the external accounts of country, "Analysis Alberto Balboni, an economist at Xerfi easy pay day loans.

"The weakness also dominates," adds customs. To make matters worse, military exports shrink to 100 million euros. "Exports, unlike imports, have not regained their pre-crisis level (they are still below their values ​​of mid-2008), continues Alberto Balboni.More worryingly, France is among the major industrialized economies (excluding Japan), which recorded the lowest export growth after the trough of the crisis. "

Dynamism of Germany

Only exceptions to this gloomy picture, agricultural exports go, and auto sales. "Sales at their highest level since the crisis, particularly to improve the major partners of the European Union," according to customs.

France breaks the limits in general thanks to the dynamism of its European neighbors, including Belgium and especially Germany. Customs also stressed that "sales to Africa, however, are well oriented (automotive and aerospace, cereals, refined oil), like those in the Near and Middle East (aircraft)".In contrast, Asian economies, exports that had supported earlier this year, marking time.

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The exorbitant cost of cyber attacks

July 3, 2011 - 1:32 am Comments Off

The numbers are staggering. In Germany, the financial damage caused by cyber crime amounted to 61.5 million euros in 2010, according to figures released Thursday by the criminal police and the Federation of high tech Bitkom. This is equivalent to an increase of 66% over the previous year. As the United States, the FBI estimated the cost of crime to some digital $ 560 million in 2009. A world-wide, according to McAfee, cyber crime would have generated some 1000 billion in 2008, about 1.64% of world GDP for that year. Remains that, without minimizing the scale of the scourge, these figures are perplexing.

Many experts give little credence to these studies because most of them emanate from computer security specialists. For the record, other than McAfee is the world number two antivirus software.In addition, "less than 10% of companies report having experienced cyber attacks," said Jean-Paul Pinte, senior lecturer in strategic intelligence at the Catholic University of Lille. According to the specialist risk management and cyber terrorists of enterprises affected societies fear the bad publicity due to media coverage of cyber attacks.

Jean-Paul Pinte, "we know nothing of the legacy and financial losses suffered indirectly." He added: "If an attack is to relieve a company of sensitive information, loss of data will generate multiple costs, such as loss of competitiveness, or the upgrading of security."

"Hard to get a comprehensive view"

Director of the National Security Information Systems (Anssi), Patrick Pailloux abounds in this direction."When a site is the victim of an attack, he takes as an example, it is first blocked, causing a shortfall. Then we must add additional costs to set up a hotline strengthened. "And on the practices of industrial espionage initiated via the Internet," How can we measure in terms of losses that a competitor could steal ?, "asks the director of Anssi. Clearly, "it is difficult to get a comprehensive view of the problem," says he.

Despite these criticisms, these figures are held up to each event on Cybercrime. However dated, the estimated one trillion dollars of McAfee is authoritative. Last May, it appeared even in the "reminder" of the fourth Parliamentary Forum on Information Society in Geneva, on the initiative, among others, the United Nations.Trompe-l'oeil, the text quoted a source stamped Europol, the pharmacy police intergovernmental European Union, which actually refers to the numbers … the software publisher.

If governments do not hesitate to chopping these impressive figures, it is often necessary to legitimize, but costly reinforcement of their agencies against digital piracy. Or clear, make the pill easier to swallow from taxpayers. In January, the UK has estimated that cyber attacks cost him a whopping 27 billion pounds per year (32.2 billion euros) in a government study.An amount (by far) greater than the harm claimed by the United States … A few days before making public figure, London has announced the release of 650 million pounds over four years to "strengthen its cyber security " guaranteed high risk personal loans

International cooperation in the war-horse

Without waving the national figures, France is no exception, as evidenced by the announcement of piracy Bercy in March. Patrick Pailloux it was for the state to "lead by example" to encourage companies to report piracy they wipe. The Director of Anssi said that 150 computers were then infiltrated by hackers to steal documents for the French presidency of the G20. "We were able to counter the threat," he goes on, noting that thirty experts have been mobilized for two months to "clean up" more than 130,000 positions in the Department.A communication that is timely, since Anssi plans to double its workforce (360 employees) by 2013.

Such methods may be distasteful, but experts and politicians agree: there is no time to waste on the face of digital crime. "For a long time in France, we thought that hacking and computer intrusions were not really dangerous, says Jean-Paul Pinte. But now we know that it's become a real business, and that the threat can come from anywhere: a simple USB key, hard drives or even photocopiers, which, connected to the Internet can become the target of hackers ".

Therefore, international cooperation, which requires significant resources, is "a priority," insists Patrick Pailloux. And for good reason: "90% of attacks are international," says the director of Anssi.In the columns of The Tribune, Laurent Wauquiez, Minister for European Affairs, recently recalled that a hacker "can be installed in Latvia, while in France to intervene through a Canadian site." He even considers urgent that Europe adopts "a kind of cyber-FBI-backed Europol" to stem the digital crime. And one last statistic to shoot, ensuring that "a user of thirty lost money in Europe over the last year" due to a hacker.

Businesses, prey selection

Having surveyed 45 U.S. companies in 2010, the Ponemon Institute found that on average, the financial damage caused by hackers and data theft was $ 3.8 million.Like that of McAfee, this figure is to be taken lightly, as though Ponemon shows his independence, his study was commissioned by ArcSight, a specialist in digital security. However, it appears that large groups are increasingly being targeted by hackers. Since the beginning of the year, the list of companies or institutions that have suffered cyberattacks has continued to grow. Sony has suffered more than ten attacks since mid-April, leading to theft of confidential data of more than 1 million customer accounts. Recently, Sega has had the same misfortune: the editor of the series of Sonic hedgehog found in mid-June have been stolen names, email addresses, birth dates and passwords of almost 1.3 million customers on its servers.Google or Citigroup also suffered cyber attacks.

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Change of time for EDF and its customers

July 1, 2011 - 9:32 am Comments Off

He is a former President of EDF, which says: "the time of abundant and cheap energy is gone forever," regardless of the source also of production (nuclear, coal, renewable …). This trend is very concrete bed on the customer bill. For the sixth consecutive year, the electricity tariff increase for individuals this July 1. The increase, announced last April by François Fillon, was 2.9%, add up and sees the increase in regulated prices (+1.2%) and social contribution to the utility of the electricity (+1.7%).

Never turned off, the debate on electricity prices could go back with a vengeance. Because it is now the law comes into force Nome (for "new market for electricity"), a text adopted last December to boost competition in France.It provides EDF sells – at a competitive price – a part of its production to its nuclear rival and then market it themselves to their customers. The law, presented as a revolution for the French market for energy, should have an impact on household bills on the rise … (see below).

Consumer associations do not took off against the past and future inflation. And not just the base rate which is spoken more often. They also stigmatize the progression of other line items to the consumer, usually taxes which EDF is primarily a collector.The social contribution to public service electricity (CSPE), to finance the development of renewable energy is particularly concerned.

Constable sector, the Commission for Energy Regulation (CRE), notes that the increase of the CSPE is "a reflection of reality": "between the development of PV, even if it has been streamlined , and the planned offshore wind, the grant of these industries will weigh on consumers sustainably. "

35% cheaper than in Europe

EDF does not underestimate the different foci of controversy. But hammers another reality, "the debates on the amount of rates must not forget that thanks to its nuclear fleet, EDF has an electricity about 35% cheaper than in other European countries," explains Philippe Monloubou the Director of the electrician trade.

Price is not the only subject of debate.The complexity and therefore the lack of transparency perceived by customers, is another. "In a market open to competition, it is desirable to improve the readability of the invoices," encourages the CRE. The extension of the smart meter Linky – now being considered by the government after the experimental phase – could bring more serious. "The electricity bill will not be established on the basis of an estimate but on actual consumption. This will avoid many problems ", says Philippe Monloubou.

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