Current News Headlines

The U.S. stock markets have opened slightly lower Monday. In early trade, the Dow Jones ceded 0.17% to 12,132.64 points and the Nasdaq 0.23% to 2672.49 points. On Friday, the New York Stock Exchange ended in the green, driven by the hope of breakthroughs on the front of the crisis in the eurozone.

The events in Europe during the weekend still seem to dictate the evolution of Wall Street. Since the appointment of Lucas Papademos, former European Central Bank, to head the new Greek government was followed by that of the former European Commissioner Mario Monti as the new prime minister in Italy last night.

As to give grist to G20 ministers meet farm late Friday morning in Cannes, the FAO food price index released yesterday registered a sharp decline after months of increases. It stood at 216 points in October, its lowest level in 11 months. "Prices nevertheless remained generally higher than last year and remain very volatile," says to FAO, the UN Food and Agriculture.

The fight against price volatility in agricultural commodities is precisely the heart of the priorities that the ministers of agriculture have taken in June in Paris during the holding of a special agricultural G20. These will draw Friday a first assessment of this work."The challenge for leaders is to find ways to constrain the natural volatility of the courses without mask or minimize the aggravating factors which tend to look the part of financial markets," said Didier Rousseau, expert industry the agri-food consulting firm Weave Same day payday loans. Volatility can be explained according to the expert by "the increase in global food demand, the emergence of biofuels or the occurrence of weather-related disasters."

The five commitments that will be discussed and reviewed at the G20 agricultural Cannes

• Establishing information system on agricultural markets (AMIS). Hosted by the FAO global database that aims to improve transparency and information on agricultural markets of four major crops for food security (wheat, rice, corn, soy).

After resisting the morning, the Paris index has increased its losses Tuesday mid-day, finishing down 1.43% to 3174.29 points. Parisian investors have expressed a wait-and very excited at the eve of an EU summit in crisis considered major. Sign of a strong wait-and trading volumes did not exceed 2.6 billion euros. Some profit taking after two sessions of strong gains also came influencing the trend. Less marked decline elsewhere in Europe, where the German Dax has limited its losses to 0.14% at 6045 points and the FTSE in London 0.41% to 5525.54 points.

Immersed for weeks in a deep pessimism, investors had played the crisis Friday and Monday. However, the ability of European leaders to respond definitively to the debt crisis is still struggling to convince.A phenomenon that confirm the disagreements between countries in the euro area on the measures to adopt, and just wiping out the gains Monday. If the preparatory meeting of finance ministers of 27 (Ecofin) has been canceled, the leaders of the euro area, however, continue to negotiate before the meeting tomorrow Wednesday of Heads of State and Government (first of 27 and 17 of the the euro area).

At the heart of the discussions: the recapitalization of banks, the amount of the discount of the Greek debt, and strengthening the European bailout fund (EFSF). According to one diplomatic source, the representatives of the banks would like to limit the discount to 40% volunteered to stabilize the Greek debt, against 50 to 60% required by the euro area.Moreover, concerns about the Italian situation is escalated, as Silvio Berlusconi may have trouble getting the promised reforms the last weekend to reduce the debt of his country payday advance. The Prime Minister pledged to push trans to 67 years of age retirement.

Diving morale of U.S. households

In this context, mixed economic data revealed the Atlantic have increased pessimism. Stabilization of U.S. house prices in August, according to the Case Shiller index, and the unexpected plunge in the morale of U.S. households in October, have reinforced doubts about the health of the world's largest economy.

By sector, banks are logically the most attacked, BNP Paribas, lost 3.75% to 30.80, Societe Generale fell back to 3.80%, to 19 euros. Axa was down 1.76% to 10.90 euros.François Fillon, French Prime Minister confirmed that the banks of the Hexagon should recapitalize to the tune of "ten billion euros."

In contrast, cyclical stocks including oil services, were well oriented, supported by oil prices that reached a high for about three months. Maurel & Prom has awarded 2.86% to 14.90 euros and CGG Veritas was up 1.21% to 16.73 euros.

Also against the current, and two days before unveiling its sales for the third quarter, the title of Plastic Omnium has continued to rise (3.35%, to 20.76 euros) having already jumped more than 10% two sessions. Finally, on the eve of the announcement of its quarterly revenue, PPR has taken the lead in the CAC 40 with a gain of 3.84% to 111 euros.

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Lefigaro.fr – messaging has it become a stress factor?

François Fatoux – Yes, definitely. The study we just completed, 38% of users receive over 100 emails per day. With the massive use of email, employees are saturated with information, most often to treat in an emergency. Because the immediacy of information has sometimes a perverse consequence: we are given less time for reflection. Faced with the constant flow, it is not uncommon that the employee feels outdated, it has the feeling of doing wrong. A situation even more difficult to live as e isolates, by discouraging physical conversations.

There are, as a result of addiction to e-mails, as measured by the researchers, maintains that stress.65% of users say they check email every hour, but actually do every five minutes! And smartphones, which allow employees to access their e-mails anywhere, increasing still potentially stressful situations. Have a blackberry was once a privilege to lead. It has become the door open to requests cascade.

Finally, the electronic mail increases, or harm their productivity?

It is very difficult to make a full and final conclusion. The mails are also many beneficial effects on work organization. In reality, everything depends on how a company and its employees use it. Very different practices coexist. All managers not only send such emails in 23 hours. But it is true that this is a very time consuming activity.More than half of the users spend more than two hours daily to manage their mailbox freecreditscore. The stress is relentless. When we know that an employee is 64 seconds to regain his train of thought after receiving an email, we have a sense of loss of concentration occasioned by email.

Another of his perverse priorities is to disrupt. The urgency tends to take the place of hierarchy. The employees work is undeniable, but spend more time on tasks accessories. Productivity is affected.

How to fight against these negative effects?

It is important for companies to seize this issue and are considering the use it makes their mesagerie mail. Should we encourage the use of mails to professionals outside the office? Should we require employees to respond instantly? The rules must be defined.

As for employees, a few simple rules can help minimize these adverse effects. Set the parameters so that every email that arrives is not reported, for example. Or take the time to reflect before answering. Or consider before each shipment: would it be more effective to pick up the phone? Is it necessary to put this or that person a copy? In terms of dependence on the tool, the answer seems to me, however, not individual but collective. Is to leaders to lead by example.

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The automotive sector is on the alert. As shown in Le Parisien on Saturday, Brussels would consider tax per liter of diesel in Europe from 8 to 15% more than gasoline. A directive to this effect must be examined by the European Parliament in November for an application expected in 2013. Objective: To fight against this highly polluting energy, used by nearly 7 million cars in Europe.

The European Commission highlights the paradox between a cleaner gasoline and cheaper duty-sold more expensive at the pump, and diesel more expensive duty free, massive source of emissions of fine particles hazardous to health, and less expensive for motorists. She said outside the UK, the tax treatment of petrol and diesel in Europe is "flawed" and needs the overhaul.

Concern

For manufacturers, the news comes at the worst time.These are already working on the application in 2014 of Euro 6, which calls for reducing carbon emissions and fine particles. This standard requires them to implement expensive technology on diesel vehicles that will increase the price of these cars from 1500 to 2000 euros pay day loans. What scare away customers. If in addition the price of a liter of diesel fuel were to increase significantly, the diesel car market could collapse.

The Committee of French Automobile Manufacturers believes that the introduction of this directive in France could lose 20 points of market share on the sale of diesel cars. In the columns of Paris, its president, Patrick Blain, worried: "The decline in production in French factories (on the cutting edge in the field of diesel, ie) would inevitably have social consequences," he warns.

Professionals and individuals may also choose to get rid of their cars too expensive, which could lead to plummeting prices of diesel cars. "It may be possible to adopt transitional measures that will leave everyone time to adjust," said he.

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The debt crisis turns to Greek tragedy and psychodrama. Tuesday night, a committee of experts of Parliament in an official report revealed that the country's debt was "out of control." The next day, denial and criticism rang out, Evangelos Venizelos, the Finance Minister did not mince words, stating that these auditors did not have "neither the knowledge nor the experience nor the necessary responsibility to judge the debt ", a few hours later, the director of the parliamentary commission complained resigned.

Stock market crash

Friday, an additional layer was taken with the surprise announcement of the suspension for ten days, the mission started in Athens earlier this week by experts from the troika (EU, ECB and International Monetary Fund).This sudden departure caused an outcry in the country and the stock market plummeted at the opening, causing the European financial centers in its wake. The finance minister has tried to downplay the event: "There was no rupture of discussions between the country and the Troika," he said. But Evangelos Venizelos has failed to convince, especially as he admitted, following that "Greece will not hold its goals of reducing the public deficit in 2011 due to the deepening recession in the country. " GDP is forecast to decline by at least 5% this year, the government now provides, which leads mechanically to predict a deficit of 8.8% of GDP at end 2011, against a previous estimate of 7.4%.

It is a fact, almost a year and a half after the introduction of the first austerity plan, Greece is again up against the wall.The austerity measures have led to a sharp recession and sealed growth, competitiveness and production. The unemployment rate reached 16.6% last month. "The committee was right. The debt is really out of control because it is growing and will continue to grow, "Analysis Stefanos Manos, a former finance minister credit reports free. "It is sad to see that the government did nothing for months. No reform of the state system, not privatization, but only the imposition of taxes and cuts in wages! There are more public spending in 2009, before the crisis, he said. This time, it is urgent, bankruptcy is just around the nose. International leaders must tap your feet.They should refuse to grant the sixth installment of the loan of 110 billion euros granted to Greece if these measures are not implemented. "This is probably the direction of the departure of the troika, which means by this dramatic move to the pressure on the government.

But this game of poker liar weary Greeks who bear the brunt of austerity. Last significant extent, the increase in VAT in catering from 13 to 23%. "A step too far, according to Giorgos Delastik, a political analyst. The Greeks are exhausted. They think that especially in terms of rigor is not applied the right way to save their country from the crisis, just as Ireland and Portugal. "

Strikes and demonstrations were not long in coming. After the Athens metro and teachers, the outraged calls for a mobilization in Parliament tonight.Ilias Iliopoulos for general secretary of the union officials, the Greeks played their all. "We are on the verge of a social explosion," said he. "In 2010, when the deficit would be reduced by five points, the Greeks had to make huge sacrifices. Today, they can not accept other measures or new cuts on wages. " However, the troika request 2.5 billion savings by the end of the year. The authorities now fear having barely contain the anger of the Greeks, who was radicalized after the summer break.

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The U.S. stock markets, should re-open down on Monday. Future of Standard & Poor's 500 and Nasdaq 100 respectively retreating from 0.27% to 1260 points and 0.65% at 2181.25 points. Wall Street ended the session on a mixed note Friday. The Dow Jones gained 0.36% to 12004.36 points while the Nasdaq 100 lost 0.32% to 2192.96 points and the S & P 500 rose 0.89% to 1278.87 points.

Despite a new rescue plan for Greece launched last night by finance ministers in Europe, U.S. markets should still be concerned as their counterparts in Europe and especially Paris.

After the reassuring words of Heads of State French and German unit, which posted a welcome Friday, the firm tone adopted by the ministers at the weekend said that the issue will be very long to resolve.The central bankers in the eurozone have defined the conditions of payment of a further tranche of loans in July, but the finance ministers of the euro area indicate that the release of the loan must be accompanied by the vote of a new plan of austerity and privatization by the Greek Parliament. Banks and other private creditors and participate in this new plan. However the contours of that plan remains to be defined.

In the wake of renewed tensions, the euro falls against the dollar. 11:00 in Paris to the European single currency was worth 1.4232 dollars against 1.4301 dollars on Friday night. In addition, oil continues to fall sharply, quoting under $ 92 in New York.

On the macroeconomic front, the week promises to be charged. Members of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Fed will meet this week.The release will be issued Wednesday evening and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will give a press conference after the meeting. Aurel BGC experts anticipate little change in the FOMC statement. They argue that the Fed chairman should emphasize the temporary nature of the slowdown and reject any idea of ​​a new program of quantitative easing. Other highlights of the week, investors will monitor the number of housing sales in the old tomorrow and in the nine Thursday. Then Friday, they will learn the durable goods orders. The latter will benefit from a rebound in transportation orders, thanks to Boeing.

All eyes will be turned to the Paris Air Show, which opens Monday.

Boeing launches new version of its popular 747 jetliner, highly anticipated.In an interview with Le Figaro, Jim Albaugh, CEO of Boeing Commercial Aviation believes "it takes 30% of the world to survive over time." This morning, the airline Qatar Airways has placed an order with Boeing for six long-haul 777-300 ER for $ 1.7 billion (list price).

NYSE Euronext said Monday in a statement the actual launch on July 11 of the first platform for bond trading companies in Europe, the project has given the green light of the Financial Markets Authority (AMF).

The side of values, General Electric has reached an agreement in principle of the two largest unions of the company for new contracts."The four-year contract will enable advances on wages, pensions and job security. "

For his part, PetSmart will turn its quarterly dividend to 0.14 dollar per share against dollar before 0125. The board also authorized a share buyback program of $ 450 million.

Monday night, Steve Jobs must have Apple's service icloud. Using a deal with record companies, the Cupertino company will upgrade its online music service iTunes. Customers can purchase their music from Apple's online store and listen to their wishes, where they are. The service called "cloud computing, or cloud computing, grow fast. This is a new revolution in computing. It is to connect to the Internet to access data and applications. Individuals no longer need to store on their PC or hard drive at home, and businesses no longer need to invest in high-performance computers.

The computer then used to open the application as a water faucet or turn on a light.Apple already offers a first service "cloud" to synchronize the network, contacts, emails and diary, from an iPhone or an iPad. The MobileMe service is very expensive (99 dollars or 79 euros per year from France).

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge the graphic.

Amazon has shown the way

Google will launch this summer the free operating system for PCs, Chrome OS, designed and filmed for the cloud. "The biggest users of cloud services are already without knowing it, individuals using tools such as Gmail or Google pay services data storage from Amazon," said Lew Tucker, Director Technical cloud at Cisco.With his offensive, Apple created a new front against Google, Amazon and Microsoft.

One of the largest global provider of cloud services Amazon is the world leader in cultural services in line with an estimated turnover in this area at one billion dollars in 2010. The original idea of ​​the champion of e-commerce, which has expanded its services to music storage for individuals, was to lease excess capacity of its own "farms" of computers. "It comes down to your apartment when it is empty during the workday and when you go on vacation," says one expert. All the giants of the Web follow the lead of Amazon. In economic terms, the marginal cost is low for providers of computing power and storage capacity. The additional revenue generated almost as much profit.For ten years, computer manufacturers, software publishers and computer services companies dream of a paradigm shift.

56 billion market

With the development of the Internet and especially because of the economic crisis, companies have converted to cloud computing. "After years of germination, cloud computing takes off. Partly for macroeconomic reasons. The crisis led all organizations to scrutinize their spending. In this context, a solution which can offer more for less is difficult to ignore, "says Ben Pring, vice president of research firm Gartner. For now, most of the market is done by software. The turnover of the software on demand is estimated around $ 11.7 billion in 2010 by Forrester Research. Today, 60% of worldwide turnover is made in the United States.But the phenomenon should spread to other countries. By 2020, the worldwide market will reach $ 56 billion, says Forrester Research.

With about 3 million business customers worldwide including one million in Europe, Google makes between 500 million and $ 1 billion in sales in the cloud. Finally, Microsoft will invest 90% of its budget on R & D in the cloud this year, said Jean-Philippe Courtois, senior vice president of Microsoft. But its sales in the area is estimated at "several hundred million dollars a year," admits a group leader. Each offers its solution. IBM, HP, Dell, Microsoft and Oracle want to use huge "farms" of servers to store and rent computing power to their customers. To this end, HP and Dell have acquired companies in the storage and data virtualization, in order to compete with VMware, a subsidiary of EMC.The market also attracts telecom giants like Cisco, Ericsson and Huawei, and specific actors, such as Akamai, Rackspace Hosting or Salesforce.

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This is a schoolboy joke, but we hear it everywhere in Lisbon. If the sky is gray if the coffee machine is broken or if one falls down, "A culpa é do Socrates!" Socrates is to blame! Portuguese Prime Minister of course embodies the grim prospects that beset his administration. José Socrates is one who, after pledging never to lower them, eventually seek outside help. The Portuguese are well aware of: against the 78 billion loaned by the troika (IMF, European Commission and European Central Bank) will require consent of hard sacrifices.

Came to power in 2005, Socialist, 53, divorced and father of two children, probably his last book political battle, the most difficult of all. Tomorrow's elections will determine its future.

The "wild beast" as he describes himself, refuses to admit defeat.Last March, soon after announcing his resignation as Prime Minister Socrates was reelected as head of the Socialist Party (PS, center left) by a final score: 93.3%. And there's another week, opinion polls placed the PS elbow to elbow with the Social Democratic Party (PSD, center right). Today, the latest opinion polls give a lead of 6 points to the DSP. "But the fact that he can still compete with the opposition is surprising analysis Teresa de Sousa, a columnist for the newspaper Publico. This is still the premier of the crisis! "She said the strength of Socrates explained by his personal qualities:" He has great charisma, a good speaker who uses simple words and direct "says she. The flip side is "low fidelity" ideological, considers Teresa de Sousa.Socrates is supposed to represent the right wing of the PS, the current more moderate training already very centrist. But throughout the campaign, this positioning does not stop him to shake the specter of anti-social right, which will liberalize at all-if she came to Sao Bento, the official residence of Prime Minister.

Tensions with the press and justice

"It's a fighting personality, not an intellectual," says José Adelino Maltez, a political scientist at the Technical University of Lisbon payday loans. And to appeal to the French philosopher Jacques Maritain: "Socrates is leading a leftist government with a right temperament." A follower of political marketing, in short, which modernized the Portuguese public life, for better or for worse. Rui Costa Pinto, who wrote an unauthorized biography of the Prime Minister (José Socrates Homen o, o lider), speaks of "a bipolar character.""It is both a deceiver and an authoritarian," he says. This journalist is one of those who have suffered the pressures of the head of government, which maintains an ambivalent relationship with the press.

"We got along well, we familiarly," recalls the biographer. Until the day Costa Pinto puts his finger on a possible bribery case. Socrates then goes into a rage. "I lost my job twice because of him," says the author, who just won a lawsuit against the protagonist of his biography. The "wild beast" is a blood. The justice professionals are in open conflict with Socrates. "The attempts of manipulation against the courts have reached unacceptable levels," has accused the head of the union attorneys, Joao Palma.The name of Socrates is released in several cases, but until now the Prime Minister went through the drops, lack of evidence.

In six years of government, Socrates has accumulated enemies. If he departs from the Republic of gold, it could lose its last allies. As for Portuguese, they will eventually unravel fact from fiction: to identify what is "a culpa do Socrates' … and assume that their structural problems remain unsolved.

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The CAC 40 moved into negative territory on Thursday. After starting the day on a drop of 0.86% to 3930.59 points, the benchmark index in Paris was widened its losses in the morning. About 12 hours, it was down 0.96% at 3926, 85 points under the technical threshold of 4000 points which had escaped to investors Wednesday.

The movement is otherwise identical to other European markets. The Dax index featuring the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, which opened down 0.85% at 7155.86 points, losing 0.96% at the same time points to 7148.25. The FTSE-100 index of London Stock Exchange, which started on a decline of 1.06% to 5965.02 points, its share reduced its losses to -0.76% at 5883.67 points.

The mood has changed beyond recognition from the beginning of the week.Greece seemed to approach Wednesday in an agreement with Europe and the IMF for further financial assistance, which could avoid insolvency. But the announcement a few hours later by a new Moody's downgrade of the Greek debt was added to the fears already heavy burden on Athens. Judging probable restructuring of the country's sovereign debt, Moody's downgraded three notches the rating of the country, pushing further into the speculative grade.

For its part, Spain has managed to raise 3.953 billion euros of bonds 3 and 4 years on the market but, despite strong demand, the rates reflected on the rise.

In this context, risk-taking are not numerous. The activity is minimal anyway since France, Ascension Thursday is a holiday.Upcoming Events, however, some indicators should capture the attention of investors present electronic check payday advance. They are mainly American with productivity quarterly, weekly jobless claims and industrial controls.

Note that the currency market, the euro remains strong against the greenback at 1.4475 dollar. Oil prices, they were down in electronic trading in Asia. In morning trading, a barrel of light sweet crude for July delivery yielded 21 cents to 100.08 dollars. That of Brent North Sea crude for delivery same lost 8 cents to 114.45 dollars.

Values ​​to follow

As for values, no news.Stay tuned, however:

The banking sector

High risk debt Greek, French banks react poorly to the degradation of the country note by Moody's: Societe Generale (-0.12% to 40.47 euros), Credit Agricole (-0.47% to 10.48 euros), BNP Paribas (-0.93% to 53.30 euros) decline. Only Natixis (+0.22% to 3.64 euro) is in green.

AXA (-1.83% to 14.78 euros) also declined.The day before the title had been the star of the CAC 40 gained 1.45%, boosted yesterday by the announcement of its new strategic plan and the sale of its Canadian subsidiary.

TF1: -1.28% to 12.38 euros

The group said Wednesday it had received offers "constructive" of several Internet service providers to distribute its pay-TV from 2012.

Trading in Gecimed remain suspended until the opening of the buyout offer followed by a withdrawal bond, its parent company Gecina (-0.59% to 99.41 euros). This opening will be later than June 8, after payment of dividend.