News & Financial Advice

European shares ended Wednesday at a low of three weeks, hit by the retail sector after announcing a sharp drop in the margin of Hennes & Mauritz and heavy trucks bank.

In Paris the CAC 40 ended down by 25.23 points, or 0.67% to 3737.12 points.

"Markets are taking a break after so sharply in recent weeks.If tomorrow, the statistic is disappointing U.S. GDP, this could be interpreted as good news because it would increase the likelihood of a new phase of quantitative easing, "said James Hughes, analyst at CMC Markets.

H & M ended down 6.45% to 242.30 kroner sudéoises, pulling down overall values of the distribution, after the results marked by the deterioration in margins. The S & P sector has lost 1.39%.

The banking sector also finished in the red as investors are still wondering what the final amount of the bill for the bailout of Anglo Irish Bank.Speculations on the consequences of Basel III also continue to threaten these values.

Deutsche Bank dropped 2.46%, 3.4% Societe Generale and Commerzbank 1.13%.

A reversal of the trend, Beiersdorf jumped 3.97% to 44.50 euros after the statements of the Chief Procter & Gamble on its interest in the German cosmetics.

Sweden on Monday published its first trade deficit in 16 years, the sharp rise in imports in August which caused a negative balance of 2.8 billion kronor (305 million) in the trade balance, announced Monday the Office of Statistics.

Sweden quickly out of the worst recession it has seen in decades, thanks to solid public finances and the resumption of the global economy.Analysts say the latest figures of foreign trade show a healthy local economy.

The krona, which has appreciated in recent weeks despite the absence of an absolute majority in parliament after the last election, grew in the wake of the publication of statistics before erasing some of its earnings.

"Exports are perhaps a little below what we expected but it remains a relatively good figure.So even if a trade deficit for the first time in ages, this reflects the rapid increase in activity in the economy, "said Torbjorn Isaksson, analyst at Nordea.

A spokesman for the Office of Statistics said the trade deficit, unusual for a country with major exporters such as telecoms equipment maker Ericsson and the truck manufacturer Volvo, explained mainly by the sharp rise Crude oil imports.

A new half-tone figure for exports in September, however, could weigh on growth prospects in the third quarter, analysts say.

The number of jobseekers in category A is increased again in August after two consecutive months of decline, according to data released Friday by the Ministry of Economy and job center.

The number of jobseekers in category A, which includes persons without work and actively seeking work, rose by 15,900 (+0.6%) last month in France, to 2,692,500, after a 0.5% decline in July and 0.3% in June.

Compared to August 2009, it grew by 4.9%.

Adding job seekers engaged in a Pool (Class B and C), the number increases by 0.2% in monthly in August (7100 people), after an increase of 0.1% in July and 0, 4% in June, up 7.1% from one year to another.

"In late August 2010, France, 3,970,900 persons registered at employment center were required to make positive job search (including Dom 4,216,800), including 2.6925 million were unemployed (class A) and 1,278,400 exerted a reduced activity, short or long (B and C) "indicate the department and job center in a joint statement.

In France, the number of job seekers Class A increased 0.8% for men (+4.7% yoy) and 0.3% for women (+5.1% on one year).

For categories A, B, C, rising spring 0.1% for men (+7.5% yoy) and 0.3% for women (+6.8% yoy).

Youth under 25 years, the number of unemployed increased by 0.3% in group A compared to July and declined 2.5% year on year.

For categories A, B and C, the youth unemployment down by 0.4% over one month and increased only by 0.1% over one year.

For over 50 years, unemployment has increased by 1.0% in group A (+16.6% yoy) and 1.3% for the three main categories (+16.7% on a year).

The number of long-term unemployed – registered at employment center for a year or more – rose 0.5% in August for categories A, B, C with an increase that is mass over one year (+27.6% ).

The entries in public service employment in categories A, B and C increased 1.3% from July but were down 3.9% year on year.

The outputs of the same categories showed a smaller increase in a monthly increase to 0.9% and 3.4% over one year.

Job offers collected by the employment center fell 2.9% in August in France but were up 9.5% year on year.

The dollar falls sharply higher Friday against the yen, buoyed by rumors of further intervention by Japanese authorities on the foreign exchange market for the second time since the beginning, explain the players.

Tokyo has not confirmed the intervention, but the dollar rose to 85.40 yen 84.55 yen cons in minutes.

When contacted, the Bank of Japan said it could not comment on that.

"Rather than say clearly whether they were made or not, they could try to make the market nervous," said a trader for a Japanese brokerage.

The plunge of the yen has also been exacerbated by a market rumor suggesting a possible resignation of the governor of the BOJ, Masaaki Shirakawa, encouraging the purchase of speculative dollars, even though traders remain skeptical, "said a participant in the markets.

Investors are waiting to see if Japan renews the type of intervention that took place last September 15 for the first time since 2004, when Japanese authorities sold 2,000 billion yen estimated.

The Italian government will revise its forecast down slightly from official growth for next year on the occasion of the presentation in the coming days by the Treasury's new projections, it was learned Wednesday from a government source.

One official, who requested anonymity, said the current forecast of a 1.5% increase in gross domestic product (GDP) would be "slightly" adjusted downwards, which should approximate those of the forecasters independent.

He said that projections for this year, anticipating a rise of 1.0% of GDP and a budget deficit of 5.0% should not be changed, or only very slightly.

"The 2010 forecasts for growth and the deficit will pretty much in line with current forecasts," the source said.

Confindustria, the main Italian employers' federation, expects growth of 1.3% next year but the Bank of Italy is more pessimistic with a prognosis of only +1.0%.

The Treasury estimates, compiled in a document entitled CFO, were originally to be presented Sept. 15 at the latest. Officials are now saying they will be unveiled before the end of the month.

The CFO will include updated projections on the evolution of Italian public debt, currently expected to 118.4% of GDP this year and 118.7% in 2011, placing it among the heaviest in the euro area .

Wall Street has ended sharply higher Monday on the eve of the meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Federal Reserve and despite a statistical property that was not particularly favorable.

The S & P 500 has also surpassed the strength of 1,140 in the afternoon, prompting more investors to come on the market, and finished at a high of four months.

"The market is currently evolving in terms of technical factors and not new, but we can not say for now so out of the fluctuation band will strengthen the market permanently," said Gary Flam (Bel Air Investment Advisors).

A pair of good corporate earnings, before the flood of quarterly accounts, and takeovers have also supported the market.

The Dow Jones gained 145.77 points (1.37%) to 10,753.62.The S & P 500 is 17.12 points (1.52%) to 1,142.71 and the Nasdaq Composite advance from 40.22 points (1.74%) to 2355.83.

Economists believe that once again the central bank will maintain the status quo on rates, while confirming its commitment to stabilize its balance sheet at its present level, without taking further measures to relax.

In terms of statistics, the index of the National Association of Home Builders / Wells Fargo (NAHB) has remained steady at 13 in September, its lowest level since March 2009, while analysts polled by Reuters had expected a slight increase at 14.

Cliff Draughn (Excelsia Investments Advisors) tempers the negative aspect of this index. "It's a bit less than expected but it is not surprising," he said."We hope a recovery in real estate but it will not happen anytime soon. The bubble started in real estate and it remains the big problem of the economy."

The Dow Jones finished construction on a gain of 4.47%. Lennar, the third U.S. property group, gained 8.22% to 15.14 dollars. He has published on Monday a profit better than expected in the third quarter.

For financial, Discovery Financial Services has also published accounts exceeded expectations. The action takes 3.8% to 16.16 dollars.

"This kind of news brings some confidence to the results of the third quarter, we think they will be in line or better than expected," said Gary Flam.

Netezza has jumped nearly 15% to 28.27 dollars.International Business Machines announced Monday the purchase of Netezza, a computer company that provides its customers with servers and related software analysis, $ 1.7 billion.

IBM gained 1.23% to 131.79 dollars.

Hochtief worked Friday to defend against the supply of its main shareholder, the Spanish construction group ACS.

Financial sources in Germany explained that the bankers working with the German construction already studying possible strategies to make the purchase of Hochtief more difficult for ACS.

"It is not clear what are the benefits (of supply) for Hochtief and its shareholders, and ACS has not demonstrated that they could represent," said Friday in an interview with Reuters the president of Executive Group, Herbert Lütkestratkötter.

It appears that ACS wants to take advantage of the strong presence of Hochtief key markets, has he added.

Asked if Hochtief preparing a defense strategy, Herbert Lütkestratkötter responded that the company was studying various options open to it.

ACS, which already owns 29.9% of the first German band to construction, announced Thursday an offer to buy at low prices relative to stock price and motivated, in the opinion of analysts, the intention to be ensuring access to important cash Leighton, the Australian subsidiary of the German group.

This cash would allow ACS to reduce its debt, which is currently around 10.4 billion euros to raise its stake in the Spanish energy group Iberdrola 13-20%, two key projects of its president, Florentino Perez, also chairman of football club Real Madrid.

DIFFERENCE OF VIEWS ON THE NATURE OF THE OFFER

A spokeswoman for ACS, however, reiterated that the proposal of the Spanish group was friendly.

"We are friendly," said the spokesman in Frankfurt. "Our proposal has benefits for Hochtief."

A view not shared Lütkestratkötter Herbert.

"(A hostile bid), that is how we should embrace it," he said.

"For the most part, market participants were disappointed by the offer," he added.

German law obliges ACS to bid on all of Hochtief it exceeds the threshold of 30%.By submitting a low bid, ACS hopes that it will be rejected, which does not prevent it from moving gradually to the capital of Hochtief rather than having to absorb at once, making it very costly.

CHA CHA will offer eight new shares for every five shares held Hochtief, a transaction that values the companies at their average for the last three months.

Based on Wednesday's closing price, the offer is 55.68 euros per share or less, highlighting the participation of 70% to 2.72 billion euros, or 1.1% less than the current Hochtief closing Wednesday.

The action of the German group closed Friday up 2.61%, to 61 euros, while ACS took the title 0.73%, to 36.085 euros.Leighton's side rose 1.34%, but gained 3.4% after meeting with the announcement of the offer of ACS.

Renault has shown Thursday as pessimistic about the evolution of the European market in 2010 than it was in July, declining sales due to the end of the scrappage proving less brutal than expected.

During the publication of its interim results, the manufacturer had already improved the diamond its forecast for sales of new cars in Europe, previously expected decline of 10% over the year.

"We said from -7 to -9% for the whole year," said Patrick Pelata, deputy CEO of the group, told reporters on the sidelines of a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of Renault's presence on the Champs-Elysees."It is rather closer to -7% today."

"We see less uncertainty about the end of the year we saw in the month of July (…). So, things settle down more soft than we feared.But the descent of the European market is still there. "

Manufacturers are preparing all to a second half much more difficult than the first, the disappearance of whiplash caused by the scrappage scheme, phased in France this year, in addition to a comparative disadvantage after the boom in sales end of 2009.

Registrations of new cars in France have declined further by 9.8% in August on a year on a reported basis, continuing to nibble the head-start at the beginning of the year, as they stand now up 1.8% Only the first eight months of 2010.

"The structural decline, which is due simply to the expectations of purchase that are made with scrap premiums, is there," added Patrick Pelata."We saw this with the figures for the month of August on the French market. It is also true on the European market and the month of September went in the same direction. This structural decline is there, it will last a few quarters. "

The number two Renault concludes that too early to speak of the crisis on the continent.

"2011 will be a mixed year. The decline in Europe is mechanical, it may be tempered if there is a net economic recovery Renault (…). The game is to offset that with gains market share and sales are international, are doing very well. "

Casino and Tesco are among the candidates who are vying for the takeover of Carrefour stores in South-East, said Wednesday sources close to the matter.

Carrefour set at the November 5 deadline for the second round of bidding, said two other sources.

Carrefour wants to sell its stores in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand to focus on markets where it is in a strong position.In Asia, it has already withdrawn from Japan and South Korea.

The Dairy Farm Singapore, owner of chains Giant and Cold Storage in Southeast Asia, is also present in the second round for the assets in Singapore and Malaysia, as well as fund capital Malaysian Navis Capital Partners, said the sources.

Aeon, the second Japanese distributor, is also in the running, unless you know exactly where still submit a bid on all assets, they added.

Sources had said Tuesday that Thai Berli Jucker PTT and had passed the first round of bidding for the acquisition of the Carrefour Thailand.

Britain's Tesco, the third global retailer behind Carrefour and Wal-Mart dominates the market in Thailand and Malaysia.

Newspapers had said he had not passed the first auction but the Financial Times reported Wednesday that it is not the case.

Casino is also very present in this region. He holds a stake in the Thai Big C Supercenter.

Casino, Tesco and Carrefour have declined comment.

The U.S. recorded a budget deficit of 90.53 billion dollars in August, slightly lower than the 95 billion expected by economists polled by Reuters.

The deficit announced by the Treasury on Monday is also down compared to 103.56 billion dollars in August 2009.

The budget deficit since the beginning of the fiscal year, which ends at the end of the month is 1,260 billion dollars against 1.371 billion in the comparable period last year.

That makes 23 months since the U.S. has a budget in the red, an unprecedented series, the Treasury notes.