Archive for the ‘people’ Category

The U.S. employment and the euro are falling markets

June 4, 2010 - 11:40 pm Comments Off

The Paris Bourse, which sailed around the equilibrium in the morning suddenly stalled in mid-session, disappointed by U.S. employment figures and worried by the fall of the euro.

At the finish the CAC 40 plunged 2.86% to end the session very much below the threshold of 3,500 points to 3,455.61 points exactly. On the whole week in Paris index shows a decline of 1.7% bringing its losses since the beginning of the year to more than 12%.

Reflecting investor nervousness, activity was sustained, with almost 5 billion euros traded on the great values of the Paris stock exchange. Other stock markets in unison dévissaient London lost 1.63% and 1.91% Frankfurt, Milan and Madrid 3.79% 3.80%.The Euro Stoxx 50 index dropped 3.20%.

Investors skeptical of increasing the strength of economic recovery plans for fear that strict hindering growth, obviously await any excuse to sell. They took advantage Friday of a disappointment on the job market in the United States to pass the act.

The euro under $ 1.20

In the U.S., unemployment fell in May to 9.7%, but the net new jobs (431 no teletrack payday loan.000) were significantly worse than expected. The NYSE has also reacted badly to this statistic, always closely watched by the markets. Wall Street was changing rapidly decline with the approach of the close of European stock exchanges. The Dow Jones lost 2.16% and the Nasdaq 1.80%.

In Europe, a new front in the crisis began in Hungary.The local currency, the forint, the Budapest Stock Exchange, and covers the failure of Hungarian debt (CDS, credit default swap) tumbled after the alarmist statements about the economic situation on the part of politicians, from the majority place.

Those fears pushed investors to the traditional safe havens like the dollar or Swiss franc. And for the first time since March 2006, the euro fell below $ 1.20. In Paris, financial stocks were once again the front line. Societe Generale lost 7.5%, BNP Paribas and Crédit Agricole over 5%.

Gaza's economy blockade in figures

June 3, 2010 - 6:48 am Comments Off

The Gaza Strip, a narrow sandy strip with about 370 square miles are home to 1.6 million people, is subject to a strict blockade by Israel since its takeover by the Islamist movement Hamas in June 2007, during a coup against the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has called last May 18 that Israel end the blockade, in a resolution adopted at the annual meeting of its members. A month earlier, during a visit to the Palestinian enclave, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had said that the Israeli embargo was "not sustainable".

The last European Commission report on the Gaza Strip, published in March 2009, estimated the damage caused by the blockade on the territory's economy, all economic and social sectors together, to 514.3 million euros.GDP in the Palestinian territories has dropped 5% in 2006 to 3% in 2007 and 2.7% in 2008.

• Unemployment

The unemployment rate stood at 38.6% of the workforce in 2009, according to the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics. It was 37% in 2008, according to the CIA, which places the Gaza Strip in 188th place worldwide in terms of number of unemployed.

• Poverty

70% of the population of Gaza lived below the poverty line in 2009, according to the CIA. UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) has estimated that the number of refugees living in extreme poverty in Gaza has tripled since the beginning of the blockade in 2007 of about 100,000 to about 300,000. On the other hand, food insecurity involved 60.5% of households last year, against 56% in 2008, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).In its report, the Commission stresses that more than 90% of the population depends on food aid from UN agencies. In February 2009, the UN had launched an appeal for emergency aid for the Gaza Strip, aiming to raise 613 million dollars (479 million euros) from the international community.

• Agriculture and fisheries

According to the report of the European Commission, 46% of farmland in the region were deemed "inaccessible" or where production was interrupted in late June 2009. Agricultural workers accounted for only 7.4% of the workforce in the fourth quarter of 2009, against 12.7% in the second quarter of 2007, according to the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics.The commercial organization Palestine Trade Center (Paltrade) said in a recent report that, without the restrictions imposed on the transport of goods, agricultural exports from the Gaza Strip could represent 2,300 tons of raspberries, 55 million cut flowers and 714 tons cherry tomatoes per year. Fishing has also suffered. Since January 2009, the areas accessible to fishermen were again reduced, to 3 nautical miles offshore. Consequently, the total fish catch has dropped by 47% between 2008 and 2009, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture.

• Industry, trade and services

According to the report of the organization Paltrade, 95% of 3750 plants in the Gaza Strip have been closed or destroyed, putting some 40,000 unemployed workers (94% of their employees). In 2009, the industrial sector weighed only 5% of the workforce, according to the CIA.Paltrade adds that the 5% of factories still operating in the Palestinian territory that does not rotate between 20 and 50% of their total production capacity. The food industry, for example, has recorded losses of $ 37.1 million in 2009 due to a complete halt to exports. She had only 16 factories last year, against 30 in 2008 and 100 in 2005. Other sectors have been severely affected, particularly the construction, energy, transport and telecommunications. Thus, some 10,000 subscribers have seen their fixed telephone services interrupted, while 330,000 mobile phone users have been affected by these cuts, notes the European Commission.

• Infrastructure

The infrastructure of Gaza has been devastated by lack of materials and construction equipment.A lack which stems directly from the blockade imposed on the territory, "said United Nations Program for Development (UNDP). More than a year after the military operation Cast Lead conducted by the IDF in the Gaza Strip, three-quarters of infrastructure damaged or destroyed are still not rebuilt or rehabilitated, says a UNDP report. The UN program was estimated last year that the cost of damage caused on the roads and bridges in the Gaza Strip rose to 18.6 million euros. His report also highlights that 82.5% of schools are still in ruins.

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Fillon announced the first cuts in state spending

May 14, 2010 - 7:35 am Comments Off

Until now, the French have not felt the effects of policy, expenditure control has been conducted since 2007. For the general revision of public policies (RGPP) merely cut in the organization of the state, culminating with the non-replacement of staff on two retiring. After the controversy arose in Spring 2008 when Bercy had failed to dent the map "families," the executive had resigned himself to not touch, or marginally so, the expenses of intervention, ie policy social and wider economic (costs targeted exemptions, housing subsidies, RSA, assisted contracts …) and subsidies (crops, including transport).

Today, given the magnitude of deficits, the government changed its tune.In framing the letter he sent to all departments, Francois Fillon requires a 10% decline in value of intervention expenditure in the period 2011-2013. "To meet the target of freezing government spending-load of debt and pensions, we can not content ourselves to work on the only day operation of departments," said Baroin's entourage, the Minister Budget. In fact, operating expenses, such purchases, computers or real estate, representing less than 20 billion euros, while the operating expenses weigh 67 billion. The Prime Minister had already announced a cut of 10% within the past week. Measurement confirmed in the letter of framing.The extension of this plane to political intervention will save 6 billion more to the state by 2013.

Difficult choices

Remains now to determine exactly where the cuts will take place. Discussions between Bercy and the ministries that will lead to arbitrage mid-June, tight ahead, as the operating expenses are political. Social expenditures account for half wicket. For them, it will take "specific reforms," according to the letter of framing. Minister of Youth, Marc-Philippe Daubresse however assured Wednesday that the criteria for awarding the RIAA will not be changed. The other half of the expenditure is made up of sectoral aid.Transport (including rail network of France), agriculture, housing and culture are on the front line.

"More generally, all departments will freeze all spending," insists one at Bercy. Including, therefore, that of Defence, while the military budget law provided an increase in appropriations. But everything should be done to ensure that capital expenditure are chipped to a minimum.

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The PMU launches credit card

April 29, 2010 - 4:44 am Comments Off

The card was launched on May 3 to allow punters to play without cash.

April 22, 2010 - 6:48 pm Comments Off

A letter dated end of January, setting the broad outlines of a trade union representation in the territorial commissions after elections in the TPE.

This bill deals with "three great subjects." First, it imposes in firms with fewer than 10 employees on a consultation list at the regional level every four years from late 2012. "This consultation will be through the internet or by mail, confirm there in the entourage of Eric Woerth. And it will affect all employees of small, except those of Agriculture whose election results, chambers of agriculture will be taken into account.In other words, all employees of businesses with fewer than 10 people will vote on the union they feel able to represent them in the territorial commissions, not the names of candidates.

Deuzio, the establishment of joint regional chambers (and the designation of their representatives) is returned to negotiations branch or inter-branch no fax pay day loans. The mission of these committees? "Monitoring and enforcement of collective agreements," says Bill.

Thirdly, the government postponed by two years the date of the next industrial tribunal elections to be held no later than at the end of 2015 and not 2013."There are many elections in early 2014 and we also want to allow time to analyze the recommendations of the Richard report," justifies a collaborator Eric Woerth.

"This is not the priority"

The Richard report, to be unveiled in the coming days, should offer new ways of "designation" of judges prud'hommes. One of the tracks would be considered to remove the election to go through an appointment of counsel based on the weight of each union at national level.Delaying the election of two years and has the advantage of allowing adequate time for governments to measure the weight of each plant under the new criteria of representativeness (will not be representative as the plants that, nationally, have a hearing than 8%).

No doubt this bill will meet the four trade unions signed the letter of intent in December with UPA: CFDT, CGT, CFE-CGC and CFTC. And will be fought by the MEDEF and CGPME rating as "excellent" social dialogue in the current SOHO and do not see the usefulness of measuring the audience of trade unions in the TPE.

"This is not the priority," has consistently indicated Laurence Parisot, the president of MEDEF, for several months.

Wyser-Pratte received significant support

April 12, 2010 - 10:28 pm Comments Off

New rebound in the case Lagard?re / Wyser-Pratte. Guy Wyser-Pratte, said the activist investor who hold 0.53% stake in Lagardere, has won the support of governance expert RiskMetrics Group (formerly ISS Proxy Advosry Services) in his critique of the structure of the media group.

Support size, because boards of RiskMetrics are followed by institutional investors. But they represent 78.51% of the capital of Lagard?re (50,51% of foreign institutional investors and 20% French).

Rejection of proposals by the management and the board

But on Monday, the general partners and managers of Lagardere SCA voted against the amendment of articles of the company – a company limited by shares to a company – in a proposed resolution before the next general meeting Guy Wyser-Pratte.A decision that is "not surprised" to advise shareholders of the activist. "The opposite would have been more democratic," he quipped.

Last Friday, the group's supervisory board had rejected outright the two main proposals of the Franco-American investor to relax the sponsorship of the Lagard?re group. For now, Arnaud Lagardere, the manager-partner of Lagardere, which holds all powers of decision with 10% of capital payday loans no teletrack. Partnership status allows to use external financing without losing control of the company.

RiskMetrics 'agree' with Wyser-Pratte

Thus, the shareholder advisory firm RiskMetrics looking for arguments Guy Wyser-Pratte: "We agree with his criticism of the sponsorship per share.

"The presence of dissent to the supervisory board of Lagard?re would be beneficial to the long-term shareholder value," she said in a statement. In any case, any election "reflects the intention of the limited partners to adopt a different status," said the company. Verdict on 27 April at the general meeting of shareholders.

On Monday, the shares are granted Lagard?re 0.46%, to 31.51 euros in a market equilibrium.

Wyser-Pratte had accused Mr Lagardere's "mismanagement", accusing him of preferring to "go play tennis in running the company." Arnaud Lagardere leads the group since the death of his father Jean-Luc Lagard?re in 2003.

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Rumors about Palm redemption

April 8, 2010 - 5:40 pm Comments Off

On Thursday, the title of the maker of Palm smartphones, the industry pioneer with his Palm Pilot, climbed nearly 4% to 15h40 to the NYSE. The title had already made up 20% Wednesday to end at 4.62 dollars.

American society is the subject of much speculation about a possible takeover due to the difficulties he encounters. Although the company has poached Jon Rubinstein, Apple, and there was the launch of two flagship models, sales remain subdued.

The Chinese company Lenovo, maker of computers, could be interested in Palm, but for now this is a rumor. Indeed, the boss of Lenovo, Yang Yuanqing said will make acquisitions in the mobile Internet but did not mention Palm.

In mid March, Palm has released new quarterly losses with sales projections by the calamitous end of MayNews that had booed the course, the share had fallen by almost 30%.

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The CAC 40 starts again from the front

April 7, 2010 - 2:52 am Comments Off

The Paris Stock Exchange began the week on a positive note, after four consecutive days of closure for Easter. In the middle of meeting, the CAC 40 0.50% advance to 4 054.40 points. The Paris Bourse and reached a record since the beginning of the year.

Thursday evening, the CAC 40 finished up sharply from 1.5%, moving beyond 4000 points, 4034 points exactly, carried by the American tone of the evening, and for good economic indicators.

Friday, while Paris and Wall Street were closed, as expected figures on employment have been published. They are good: in March, the United States has created 162,000 jobs, the best performance in nearly three years. It is partly due to the hiring of 48,000 federal agents responsible for conducting the population census planned this year. But overall, the trend shows that employment in the private sector restarts.The ISM and the promise of home sales were also better than expected.

These figures were in any case allowed to appear in Asian stock green overall, except in Tokyo, but this index had increased many previous sessions. The trend was still a bit cool to the announcement by the Australian central bank as falling interest rates to 4.25%, the fifth increase since October.

Few statistics Tuesday

On the macroeconomic front on Tuesday, few new major.The INSEE published at noon on turnover in wholesale trade, retail trade and personal services for French companies in January on line pay day loans.

In the U.S., will be followed by the minutes of the monetary policy meeting of the Fed's March 16 to 20 hours.

Renault honor

Criticized in France, Sanofi-Aventis drug against heart rhythm disorders is considered less effective than existing generic by the Cedars-Sinai Heart Center of Los Angeles whose analysis should be widely listened to. The group shares yield 0.93%, to 54.65 euros.

Historic day for Renault, whose shares climbed 2.21% to 36.28 euros. The French manufacturer is on Tuesday morning a special board.It must give its approval to a broad industrial cooperation with the German group Daimler and equity participations cross.

Total has been indicted for corruption, but its shares rise 1.4%, to 44.25 euros, while oil is still above $ 86. Total advances from 1.90% to 44.47 euros.

As India began the population census, the service companies that handle such services are identified on the alert, like Capgemini and Steria.

Beneteau released Thursday night after a stock turnover of more than 253 million euros for the first half of fiscal 2009-2010, as against less than 240 million euros last year. Beneteau expects a growth of 15% over the year. The stock price up 0.15% to 13.40 euros.

Real estate: how to take advantage of bargains

April 6, 2010 - 11:00 pm Comments Off

Realtors? A good indicator of the economy. Today, the stone as the economy heads out from the water, but both of them are not yet fully recovered and remain afloat in midstream. Tails, the good news, transactions leave. This year, Fnaim, the federation of estate agents, believes that the bar of 600 000 transactions could be completed. But the market remains mixed. The nine was widely supported by the success of Scellier law, which allows investors to benefit from a tax of 25% within an investment of EUR 300 000. The former, he, still suffers. Because the coin has two sides. Front side, the bad news, the former has not solved the fluidity necessary for proper functioning of the housing market.These professionals call that the secondly-time buyers, that is to say, households who sell a property to buy another, are still not massively back on the market. In many places and on many products, it is still often difficult to match the expectations of those sellers with buyers.

After a blip like this has crossed the housing market, have a good idea of the price of a property is difficult. All the buyers and sellers are determined based on their expectations about future price developments. Roughly speaking, professionals assume a status quo prices. The most optimistic evoke certain properties, the most sought increases in the order of a few percent. Others believe that the balance should tilt towards a price reduction. Mathilde Lemoine, director of economic studies of HSBC France, and expects a decline in prices of the old 4% this year.For its part, the Land Bank expects "a drop in prices of 3% in the former and stability in the new." And pout Mouillart Michel, Professor of Economics at Paris X-Nanterre, "there is no risk of sudden fall of the market.

Another less quantifiable changed with the crisis and must be taken into account. In real estate, as elsewhere, households are determined to buy at the right price, to be smart consumers and investors informed. The beating of the heart are more difficult. Today, we buy more with his head than his heart. The ball is still in the camp of buyers. They have attractive credit terms. It is indeed possible for those who have the best records, to find a fixed rate loan over fifteen years to 3.5%. It will be hard to beat. "Interest rates will necessarily undergo one or more increases in 2010," said the broker CAFP.In a market recovering, prices are difficult to read. We publish in this case the numbers of notaries, those of the Credit Foncier Fnaim and according to our tour of France prices in Ile-de-France and its regions. Searched information, necessary but not sufficient. For now, the price changes between a product with and without defects, good or bad situation, are becoming wider. To help you better understand these variations, we have pushed the investigation further. With concrete examples of prices that are resistant and those who decline (page 114) and a tour of France that you can buy if you're lucky enough to have a budget of EUR 500 000 (page 142). On most goods, prices have declined from their level two years ago. But they did not collapse.In the Ile-de-France, for example, notaries emphasize that "the decline in prices recorded between autumn 2008 and summer 2009 was about 10%" low fee payday loans. But the downward trend in prices has "interrupted". "On an annual basis, the decline in prices between late 2008 and late 2009 is more than 5.6%," they add. This year they expect a stabilization of prices. And sounding the alarm. "The resumption of the construction of new housing in the private sector was essential to the recovery of the market. The shortage of quality housing appropriate to the needs of Parisians is short-term risk of a return of speculation.

The network Orpi evokes a "real recovery, but fragile." A word that recurs in several experts. Mathilde Lemoine and speaks of a "housing demand remains fragile because of imbalances persist.Yet the French like stone. After the fall of shares in 2008, the erosion rate of return on financial investments, many households have even rediscovered the charms of real estate, which enjoys a level of trust greater than financial markets. If market participants, professionals and individuals, are reasonable, it could therefore grown out of this crisis.

The purchasing power of households holding back price increases

In the nine programs are, at least for this year, many to sprout and marketing is well underway (see page 148), and some programs, proponents talk about buyers sleeping room not to miss the opening the sales office. Others talk of bidding on the price of land currently for sale. We find places for runaway phenomena.Sign of fine weather sets found for Real Estate? Nobody dares to translate it well. Because we have not yet met for the recovery that is taking shape into a market stabilized and restored. "A major risk of the recovery is that sellers reflect recovery by rising prices," says Orpi. For the market to find its stride, the sellers should stop dreaming about trees that rise to heaven, and that construction professionals are able to reflect the changing purchasing power of buyers in their projects. In a recent study based on the relationship between prices and incomes, Patrick Artus (Natixis) estimates that property prices are still too high (10 to 15% in France). Today, many proponents say, if prices rise too far, the application will not be there because the acquisition of a home no longer go into the budgets of many households.This constraint incomes and high unemployment limit the potential for price recovery. Managing the crisis will be difficult for the economy as a whole and real estate. This is the challenge of coming months to policies and professionals. For individuals who have the means to, global rates, market and taxation are conducive to a real estate purchase.If they have a project, they have a vested interest in the reality.

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Wall Street to its highest since 17 months

March 18, 2010 - 5:02 am Comments Off

U.S. investors are smiling. The NYSE has finished in the green for the sixth straight session Wednesday. At the close, the Dow is 0.45% to 10,733.67 points, its best close since October 2008. The Nasdaq climbed 0.47% to 2389.09 points. The S & P 500 finished up 0.58% to 1166.21 points.

The decision of the U.S. central bank widely expected, continues to support markets, as before. The Asian and European markets have reacted the same way, following the announcement.

Today, the markets awaited the speech of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Paul Volcker, economic advisor to President Barack Obama, before the Committee on Financial Services of the House of Representatives on Banking Supervision."We are quite concerned about the latest proposal to make the Fed the regulator of banks only," said Ben Bernanke. "The participation of the Federal Reserve oversight of banks of all sizes are greatly enhanced our ability to fulfill its role as central bank," said Ben Bernanke.

Note that the stronger-than-expected producer prices bolstered the decision of maintaining a low level of interest rates. The latter fell twice more than expected in February, according to official figures from the Labor Department. They have declined 0.6% compared to January while analysts had estimated the decline at 0.3%.This is the first decline in this indicator since September, and its biggest decline since July 2009.

"The combination of good economic statistics and an easy money policy will pull the market up," summarized Peter Cardillo, Avalon Partners. Trade volumes continued to be weak however and movements in the stock market "conservative," the analyst said.

The materials sector to

Within the Dow, the largest increases are signed by the values related to raw materials.The aluminum producer Alcoa (4.78% to 14.48 dollars), the oil companies Chevron (0.93% to 74.76 dollars) and ExxonMobil (1.19% to 67.36 dollars) up, while OPEC has announced his intention not to raise production quotas barrel of oil.

The chip maker Intel (+1% to 22.23 dollars) has unveiled a new chip (Xeon) almost 60% more efficient than the previous generation. The computer giant is to publish its results on April 13 and analysts expect a pleasant surprise.

LBO rumors circulating on Harley-Davidson (-0.53% to 28.20 dollars).

Pepsico (+0.76% to 66.57 dollars) did not suffer from degradation of S & P "A" after the acquisition of bottlers.

Hartford (4.84% to 28.58 dollars) and Discover Fiancial Services (-0.39% to 15.24 dollars), announced after the close of Wall Street they will quickly repay their funds have been advanced state. Hartford must repay $ 3.4 billion to the Treasury and Discover 1.2 billion dollars. The issuer of Discover credit card has also announced a loss of 104 million dollars in its fiscal first quarter.

Pfizer (-0.29% to 17.21 dollars) Wednesday tabled a takeover offer from German manufacturer of generic drugs Ratiopharm in the last stage of the bidding, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Primerica, a subsidiary of Life Insurance Citigroup (at equilibrium, to 4.05 dollars) has filed documents relating to its IPO. It could raise up to $ 234 million through this operation.

Overall, the bank is in good shape. Bank of America took 1.41% to 17.27 dollars and JPMorgan Chase 1.27% to 43.79 dollars.

Note also the French insurer Axa is planning to leave the New York Stock Exchange March 26.