Archive for the ‘news’ Category

Bad mood on Asian markets

October 13, 2011 - 5:56 am Comments Off

The optimism was short-lived on the Asian markets. After an encouraging start of the week, the markets plunged again in the red, the footsteps of European and American stock exchanges. Hopes that the problems of sovereign debt in the euro area resolved quickly, as promised last weekend by the Franco-German duo have been showered by the rejection by the Slovak parliament to the expansion of financial aid funds the euro area (EFSF). Last country to vote on the subject, Slovakia was expected by the markets at the turn. This decision may slow the process of post-crisis recovery that the pessimism of the operators. A second vote, however, could be organized with the support of the left opposition which requires the holding of elections in exchange.

In addition to these political deals, investors are disappointed by the results of the aluminum giant Alcoa.The latter, which traditionally opens the ball results in the United States, reported Tuesday a quarterly profit below expectations, attributed to slower economic growth since mid-2011.

The U.S. Senate penalizes the yuan

In Japan, the bad news drive the Nikkei down. At the end, it gives up 0.40% to 8738.90 points. The broader Topix index has eroded his side of 0.21% to 753.44 points. Export values ​​are undermined by a strengthening of the yen was down 0.27% Toyota, Honda of 1.79% and 4.07% Nikon loose, affected by its decision to suspend production in Thailand by the floods that hit the country. For the same reasons, Toyota announced that he was forced to suspend production for the week in its three plants. Values ​​related to energy are affected by the poor results of Alcoa.Sumitomo Metal Mining loose eg 1.64% no fax cash advances.

Please note that orders for capital goods in the private sector in Japan, excluding energy and shipbuilding, jumped 11.0% in August compared with July, according to the government Wednesday.

Australia's S & P lost 2.09% to 3325 points. Values ​​related to the sector of raw materials are affected by Alcoa. BHP Billiton drops 1.20%, 2.51% Alumina and Rio Tinto 1.59%.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong manages to remain in the green, up 0.63% to 18,255 points, as the Shanghai Composite Stock Exchange Shanghai jumped 2.16% to 2399 points. Always driven by Beijing's decision to support the banking sector, Agricultural Bank of China gained 1.34% and 1.13% Bank of China.Moreover, the U.S. Senate on Tuesday approved a bill to penalize China, suspected of manipulating its currency to boost exports, despite the reluctance of the White House. The adoption of the bill is a "severe sprain" the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) can cause a "trade war", responded Wednesday to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Korean Kospi follows in the footsteps of Chinese markets and advances from 0.50% to 1803 points. Even bullish on India Sensex climbs to 1.10% at 16,718 points.

Oil down

The price of oil was down at the opening Wednesday in Asia, where the market re-Slovak pessimistic after the rejection of strengthening European support fund and the estimated demand for crude revised downwards by OPEC.

In electronic trading, a barrel of "light sweet crude" for November delivery lost 1.04 dollars to 84.77 dollars. Barrel of Brent North Sea crude for November delivery gave 74 cents to 109.99 dollars.

Android: Samsung will have to pay microsoft

September 29, 2011 - 7:08 pm Comments Off

"Android is not free." Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, had reiterated in an interview with CNN. The computer giant, who believes that this platform violates several of its patents, asking all manufacturers of devices using it to pay him royalties. After the Taiwan-based Acer and HTC, so it's Samsung's turn to bend. The Korean giant has signed an agreement to this effect Wednesday requiring him to pay royalties to Microsoft on sales of each of its smartphones governed by the system Android.

The terms of this agreement shall remain confidential. Note that Samsung should pay, however, could be as salty as that of HTC, which would pay about $ 5 a smartphone. The success of the Samsung Galaxy SII should fully make the computer giant.

In addition to this financial agreement, Samsung is committed to supporting the development and marketing of Windows Home Phone System. The Korean giant has also announced the launch of the Omnia W under the new version of the operating system.

Google angry

While Microsoft enjoys this new victory, Google outcry. The system designer Android is supposed to be free, denounced a "tactic for many times," close to extortion. "Failing to succeed in the market for smartphones, Microsoft relies on legal measures to extract profits from the success of others and may impede the pace of innovation," protested one voice. "We remain focused on the development of new technologies and partner support of Android," he said.

Terminal manufacturers using this operating system are in a very uncomfortable situation. First, Android is very expensive. On the other hand, the surprise takeover of Motorola's mobile division by Google places them under direct threat of seeing the search engine to give priority access to innovations in its new line of mobile phones.

The parade is perhaps the signing of new partnerships. Samsung is well to conclude an agreement with Intel to develop another operating system called Tizen.

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Toxic Loans: how to get rid

September 22, 2011 - 7:20 am Comments Off

Very touched by the toxic loans, these loans whose interest rates can soar, the Socialist Mayor of Saint-Etienne, Maurice Vincent, claimed that the government take responsibility. "The Ministries of Economy and Interior are asking us to manage ourselves the question with the banks negotiating with them. But this can not be a solution! "Storm elected.

St. Stephen was able to renegotiate certain loans: from toxics declined from 70% to 34% of its debt. But not all. Because in some cases, banks are asking the community to pay a cash adjustment to transform the high-risk loans in a normal loan. The principle of the balance is logical: the bank must be "compensated" as she would have received in interest rates high – up to 24% in Saint-Etienne with toxic loans.But its amount, which varies according to market conditions, may be prohibitive. "For a loan of 20 million, Deutsche Bank in early 2010 we asked a cash payment of fifteen million. It had no advantage for us, "said Maurice Vincent. Which concludes that most communities are in this case. The Court of Auditors number between 7 and 12 billion the amount of toxic debt, total debt of a community of 160 billion. The mayor of Saint-Etienne believes that the cash payment to pay to get out is now about ten billion euros, given the market conditions. Or communities can not afford to pay such a sum to get rid of loans at risk.Or more precisely, they could afford at the cost of tax increases – from 15% to 20% in Saint-Etienne after its mayor – and lower public spending.

"That's why I want the government set up a bad bank," concludes Maurice Vincent. This structure would take over the toxic loans communities, which would then be freed of the problem. This would be the banks that finance the bulk structure défaisande. And so that would take the loss. So far the government has been opposed to this idea. And the Court of Auditors as well.

Communities have, however, a weapon used today: the trial. Saint-Etienne sued the Deutsche Bank and RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland), including failure to board. The first verdict next year.And in the meantime, the payment of interest is suspended.

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The CAC 40 down, eyes focused on the Fed

September 21, 2011 - 2:44 pm Comments Off

After finishing the day in the green yesterday, gaining 1.50% to 2984 points, the CAC 40 tackles the session close to balance, falling symbolically 0.04%% to 2982.86 points on Wednesday, pending an important decision of the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed). After a two-day meeting, the institution is expected to announce measures to support the U.S. economy. The wait seems high, especially since the day before, the International Monetary Fund has raised the specter of a recession in the world by launching "a strong call to action" at the announcement of its lower growth forecasts for the global economy. This should amount to 4% for both 2011 and for 2012, 0.5 points less than the 4.5% announced in April.However, "given the weakness in economic indicators, it is almost certain that the Fed will do something but it is difficult to know exactly what," noted economists from Capital Economics.

Investors should in all cases be cautious on the Old Continent, especially after the deterioration of the Italian sovereign debt on Tuesday, which must be added the absence of a clear response from the area in the euro area on the Greek crisis. The conference held the day before between the Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos and the heads of mission of the "troika" of the creditors of the country has still not been completed. Only "good progress has been made," the European Commission ruled in a statement. Yet it must release the next tranche of aid and vital in Athens 8 billion euros.The Greek authorities are pressed by their foreign creditors to accelerate the reduction of budgetary expenditures, while the other side, protesters denounced the daily ravages of austerity.

Brazil could help the euro area

In addition, the Greek daily Kathimerini Athens unveiled Tuesday would consider holding a referendum on the continuation of Greece in the euro area to strengthen its legitimacy in its management of the debt crisis. A bill prior to the referendum would be discussed in the coming days, the newspaper said, quoting unspecified sources.Athens, however, denied such a referendum.

While the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) had indicated last week the possibility of supporting the euro area by increasing their holdings of bonds, the President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, confirmed this position at Barack Obama on Wednesday at a meeting in New York.

On the macroeconomic front, the United States, home resales for the month of August are expected in 16 hours as the weekly inventory of crude oil at 16.30.

In Britain, the public finance figures for August are expected.

In Italy, the current account balance for the month of July will be published.

In Japan, foreign trade figures for August will also be unveiled.

On the foreign exchange market, the euro remained stable against the dollar Wednesday after Greece has reported "satisfactory progress" with the troika of creditors, but the markets remained nervous awaiting the announcements of the Fed . Around 8 am, the European currency was worth 1.3703 dollars against 1.3702 dollars the night before.

As for oil, it was down Wednesday morning in a market desperate to face the crisis of debt in the euro area, pending a decision by the Fed to promote economic recovery of the largest consumer of crude in the world.In early electronic trading, a barrel of "light sweet crude" for October delivery gave up 53 cents to 86.38 dollars per barrel of Brent North Sea crude for October delivery lost 37 cents to 110.17 dollars.

Values ​​to follow

• Banking

After the degradation of Italian sovereign debt, Societe Generale, Credit Agricole and BNP Paribas, which are exposed, will still be observed.

Attention will also Dexia, which would have allowed for 25 billion euros in loans toxic entities in 5500, according to Liberation.The additional cost of these credits was estimated at 3.9 billion euros at the end of 2009.

• Bouygues

The group filed with the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) the prospectus of the takeover of shares of € 1.25 billion announced on August 31, at 30 euros per share.

• Saffron

The aerospace equipment mandated banks Mediobanca and UBS to bid for the Italian manufacturer of aircraft engines Avio, reports the newspaper front page.

• Canal +

The Competition Authority decided Wednesday to withdraw the decision to authorize the merger of satellite packages CanalSat and TPS, completed in 2007, finding that Canal Plus had "failed to comply with a number of commitments" made to avoid misuse its dominant position.Groupe Canal Plus also sees a fine of 30 million euros.

• JCDecaux

According to Les Echos, the group won an exclusive contract advertising on two subway lines in Chongqing in China for a period of 15 years, but did not disclose financial details.

• Le Noble Age

The company announced in a press up all its results in the 1st half (34% to 3.68 million euros for the net) and confirmed the increase in its forecast of EBITDAR margin ( Operating income before depreciation, amortization and rent) at cruising speed greater than 27% by year end.

Debt: the note of Italy in the sights of agencies

September 20, 2011 - 11:44 am Comments Off

The risk of contagion from a crisis of debt grow even further. After Greece, Ireland, Portugal and most recently the United States is now the turn of Italy to see their credit ratings damaged by Standard & Poor's. The rating agency lowered a notch credit ratings long and short term attributed to the third European economy A/A-1 against A + / A-1 + before. S & P also maintains a negative outlook on the evolution of economic activity in Italy. In other words, it does not degrade once the debt rating of the country.

The degradation of S & P is all the more unexpected it had been no warning from the agency, in contrast to Moody's.The latter had announced Friday that it would complete in October, with a month lag, the examination of the Italian credit note for a possible cut, citing a difficult economic environment.

Standard & Poor's, the downgrade of the debt is directly related to the low economic growth and a fragile political situation. In fact, the ruling coalition of Silvio Berlusconi has only a slim majority. Thus, the rating agency believes that the differences in the Parliament will continue to restrict government's ability to respond decisively to a macroeconomic environment inside and outside tricky.In addition, many escapades of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi also helps to weaken the ruling coalition.

The difficulties of the incumbent government to impose measures were illustrated by the recent childbirth painful austerity plan. This program changed multiple times is not convincing and suggests that S & P "will undoubtedly contribute little to boost economic performance of Italy, especially in a context of tighter financial conditions and because of the program fiscal retrenchment of government. " Facing a debt of 1900 billion euros, equivalent to 120% of annual GDP, the Berlusconi government has pushed through last week by parliament an austerity plan providing for 59.8 billion euros in savings with the aim bring the budget back to balance in 2013.

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Tablets and smartphones, the uncontested star high-tech

September 15, 2011 - 3:32 am Comments Off

This year again, the market shelves is essentially … the Apple iPad, despite an influx of competing products on the market. "Other manufacturers are struggling to create the right set-shelf applications to counter Apple," says Kirk Campbell, CEO of IDC. Samsung advanced course in second place world ranking producers of tablets, but it is still far behind the iPad. "RIM, the maker of BlackBerry, will come with an improved product. It retains its chances of success, "said the boss of IDC, while sales of PlayBook, the first tablet of RIM, have not changed the world rankings.

"There's always room for one leader in the business world," said Kirk Campbell.Indeed, users have iPads'm more likely to want to use it in a professional, IT departments are often the resistance, finding the subject too insecure. "The market remains very open shelves and Apple will sell mechanically market share," said Kirk Campbell. However, the firm at the apple still have good days ahead. If Microsoft Tuesday unveiled a new Windows Tablet 8 can equip, no product should be on the market before the end of 2012. Accordingly, IDC does not anticipate any real rebound in the PC market before that date.Then, computer sales are expected to further growth in France, with the arrival of the new Windows, but also new forms of computers and especially ultrabooks These extra thin and light PC Faxless payday loans.

Sales of smartphones are also expected to continue to grow, reaching four billion euros, an increase of 33% at the end of 2011. About 12 million handsets will be sold in France this year. "This increase meets the mobility needs of consumers," said Kirk Campbell, for whom the main battle takes place on the side of operational systems. If for the moment the landscape is dominated by IOS (Apple) and Android (Google), "there is room for five or six players, according to Kirk Campbell. There will be regional solutions. Remember that the Chinese are still not entered the race. "In France, Bada, the operating system from Samsung that plays the third male. Korean is also passed by Apple in July. Android now holds more than 50% of the French market of smartphone sales, against 17.7% for Bada (which equips Samsung Wave) and 17% for iOS Apple.

"The future cars will be connected devices" said Kirk Campbell, who predicted the establishment of a new economic model that would allow manufacturers to generate recurring revenue by selling subscription services. Ford has already extensively engaged in this way with Sync.

Cars: French brands do not benefit from the recovery

September 1, 2011 - 11:04 pm Comments Off

The automotive market bounced back in August. For the first time in four months, new car registrations in France rose 3.2% year on year in August, according to figures from the Committee of French Automobile Manufacturers (CCFA) announced on Thursday. In total, 108,530 units were sold against 159,945 in July.

But this slight improvement has not benefited the hexagonal marks. Registrations of PSA Peugeot Citroen fell 3% to 31,867 cars sold, sealed by the brand Peugeot (-6.1%), while Citroën has increased slightly (+1%). The Renault was down 1.4% to 27,116 cars, despite the rise of the Renault brand (4.8%), due to the fall of its inexpensive Dacia vehicles (-22%). At the Paris Bourse, the new goes wrong with investors. Title Peugeot unscrewed from 3.73% to 20.53 euros by 10:50, in a market down by 1.10%.The action leaves Renault at the same time 2.88% to 27.52 euros.

Featured Nissan

Sales of French cars have fallen by 2.2% over the period while those of foreign cars grew by 10.5%. The Nissan group, whose sales volume is much lower compared to the French cars (3880 cars passed last month) shows still an increase of 32.5%.

BMW saw its registrations increase by 29.5%, while rising by 18.7% Hyundai, Mercedes 17.8% and 15.2% of Volkswagen. Fiat, however, is always the trouble with registrations down 21.5%.

Difficult recovery

To observers, this underperformance against French manufacturers is a surprise. "We were pretty confident and we did not think the market would collapse in August," said Francois Roudier, spokesman for the CCFA."But you still have to be careful because August is a very small volume in terms of months," he added. According to him, the market will "gradually reduce" to the end of the year, due to the effect of the removal of the scrapping took place in late 2010.

Since January, the car market grew by hexagonal only 0.4%. French sales of the first eight months of the year are down 4.4% while foreign groups are gaining 7.7%.

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Two movies on VOD three are purchased on iTunes

August 24, 2011 - 2:08 am Comments Off

Apple has made off with digital music. The group of Cupertino recurrence in video on demand (VOD). United States, its download platform iTunes controlled the first half of 2011, 65.8% of movie sales online, says a study by the Institute IHS Screen Digest. According to it, video on demand and downloading films have generated $ 229 million in revenue over the period.

Within a year, Apple has gained almost a point of market share. In parallel, the number two market, the platform Zune Video Marketplace Microsoft lost 2.3 points to 16.2% market share. The disappointment is huge for Sony, whose PlayStation Store will not pick up more than 4.4% of revenues from online video, against 8.2% market share in the first half of 2010.

Only Wal-Mart, with its platform Vudu and Amazon have increased over the period.They control 5.3% (+4.3 points) and 4.2% (0.2) of the market. Both players have recently muscled their offerings in the online video, is launching a range of streaming, or by signing new agreements with Hollywood studios.

"The expansion of the market share of iTunes is a remarkable result in view of increased competition from aggressive rivals some" notes Arash Amel, senior researcher in charge of digital media at IHS. The Apple platform was driven by the growth of the park iPad, special offers on movies and the ability to stream movies from a wireless terminal on a screen Apple TV, IHS analysis.

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Brussels imposes traceability toys

August 20, 2011 - 3:52 pm Comments Off

The race against time for Christmas toys began. The year 2011 is not easy. In addition to the rising price of raw materials, manufacturers and distributors must manage an additional constraint: the implementation, since July 20, the new European directive on toy safety. This significantly strengthens the requirements. So, in laboratories and offices, the list of requests made to the standards continues to grow … "The timing is not ideal compared to year-end holidays," says Stéphane Azoulai , Vice President Lansay.

The new directive, which replaces a text dating from 1988, strengthens the regulation, including through improved product traceability. Each toy must now be accompanied by his "identity card".Which identifies the entire production chain, from raw material origin to the name of the toy factory where it was manufactured. As for the 'CE' (European Community), it must be printed directly on the product or its label and not only on its packaging.

"The goal is to enable consumers to find out where the toy," says Serge Milon, toy expert at SGS, the world leader in inspection and certification. Mistrust has indeed increased in recent years, the list of suspect products (cadmium, phthalates …) have ceased to grow.

The Directive also takes into account the changing attitudes of children. The markings were made more accessible by using shorter sentences and more punchy ("choking," for example).The new text drummed cards especially among manufacturers, distributors and importers in an area where more than three quarters of the products are manufactured in China. The responsibility for quality and safety, is now shared paydayloan. It no longer lies only to manufacturers.

An implementation guide accompanies the 150-page directive to allow decoding risk analysis, monitoring records … If some importers or distributors may prefer a blind eye to the origin of a particular toy, they could now show zeal. Some will have to conduct additional inspections. "This is monstrous files to provide our clients, Stéphane Azoulai sorry.Some signs are up again test the toys in the laboratory. "

Advantage given to European manufacturers

The cost of the new standards, up from 10% to 20%, also changes the game. It takes 1,000 to 4,000 euros per product, depending on its level of sophistication. Products stored for more than three years must also board safety tests. "When 150 references, it starts to do a lot!" Stéphane Azoulai plague. "These high costs lead us to limit the depth of our range, adds Thierry Bertoux, CEO of Jemini, the French soft toys and furniture for children. It is easier for a multinational company to amortize these costs over several million pieces. "

Some companies have chosen to transform their organization to adapt to the regulations.At Lansay, one person was previously in charge of standards and procurement. A team will soon be established.

If it is more restrictive, the new regulations, however, gives a competitive advantage to European companies, "insofar as it creates barriers to entry," said Thierry Bertoux. "Making cost could lead to compromise at the expense of safety, says Serge Milon. It is a way to make quality and safety of products up by applying best practices. "

Apple, a sacred number of mobile computing

August 18, 2011 - 9:52 pm Comments Off

Apple becomes the world's largest "portable" across all categories, ie, taking into account both PCs and tablets. The Apple brand has sold 13.6 million against 9.7 million laptops for HP, relegated to second position. Apple has a performance to 10.7 million iPads that have been sold worldwide in the second quarter. 65% of this market.

In the past three months, sales of tablets exploded 400% to $ 16.4 million, while those of notebooks have eaten 2% to 48 million copies. "The growth of the market shelves beginning to be at the expense of laptops," said Richard Shim, analyst at Display Search Senio, thus justifying the merger of these two product categories in the studies.

And behind the two market leaders, the battle continues.Acer has recorded the largest decline, with sales volumes plunged by 12% in one year. The Taiwanese are heavily penalized by the failure of his tablets. However, Samsung and Dell posted the best gains, with growth of 44% and 33%.

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