News & Financial Advice

Lindt & Sprungli has increased its net profit in the first half but remains cautious for the year 2010 because of the volatile commodity prices and foreign exchange.

Net income was posted at 24.8 million francs (18.8 million euros) in the first half, almost tenfold from 2.7 million achieved a year earlier, said Tuesday the Swiss chocolate.

Analysts polled by Reuters on average expected 20.4 million.

"Despite the excellent results of the first half of 2010, Lindt & Sprungli sticks to what it was made public in March 2010, the company said in a statement, citing an economic environment not yet fully consolidated and conditions still volatile.

It confirms expected this year organic growth of 5% to 7% and operating profit (EBIT) of 300 to 340 million francs.

The EBIT after exceptionals jumped by 40.7% in the first half, to 33.9 million francs, against 26.8 million expected by the market. Turnover increased 7.9% to 1056.6 million (against 1.043 million expected), after 979 million in the first half of 2009.

In value terms, the group notes that most of the chocolate market grew moderately in the first half, while in terms of volumes, it continues to see a certain stagnation.

Wheat prices on the Chicago market gained nearly 8% in plenary on Thursday, near their highest level in two years, following the announcement by Russia to stop its exports of cereals.

The current drought in Russia, one of the worst in the history of the country, devastated crops in several regions, which causes several days a soaring wheat prices on international markets.

Investors are afraid that pressure on this market over the coming months in the absence of a major world exporters.

FAO, United Nations Organization for Food and Agriculture, on Wednesday reduced about 4%, or 25 million tonnes, its forecast for world wheat crop for 2010.

If it considers that the offer is sufficient for now, she warned that "if the drought in the Russian Federation continues, this could pose problems for winter crops in this country, with potentially serious implications for deliveries World wheat in 2011 and 2012.

The benchmark price of wheat in Chicago jumped 82% since June 9

On Thursday, panic buying of investment funds and traders on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) also focused on corn and soybeans, which gained 2.6% and 0.8%.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Thursday the suspension of exports of cereals and processed agricultural products between August 15 and December 31, a decision that applies to contracts already signed.

He has confirmed information previously reported by Russian news agency Interfax, which had triggered the wave of purchases.

"The announcement of Putin panicked everyone (…).Nobody knows how far we could go, "said Paul Haugen, Vice-president of Newedge USA.

At midday in the U.S., the futures contract on wheat for September delivery gained 60 cents, its highest increase allowed to 785.75 cents, the highest level these last 23 months by the maturity nearest market.

DISTORTIONS

"I would not be surprised if it took 60 or 70 cents extra, even more during the next session," said Joe Bedore, the brokerage firm FC Stone in Chicago.

Kazakhstan, another major wheat producer in the Black Sea basin, said anticipating a fall of 35% of its harvest and study by the end of a request from Moscow to reduce its own exports.

International trading giant Cargill said he expected that such trade barriers distort the global wheat market.

In the European market Euronext, the benchmark November contract on wheat milling peaked Thursday at 236 euros before ending the session at 223.25, up 6.8% on the day.It was up nearly 60% since late June

Wheat has not yet regained its record levels of 2008, when prices in Chicago had exceeded 13.30 dollars a bushel, boosted by fears of a global food crisis.

Some analysts also believe that the current increase is overstated, noting the high level of global supply after two consecutive years of record crops.

The absence of Russian wheat in the coming months could also benefit other major exporters, U.S. or Europe.

"A Case of Russian exports would distribute maps of the international wheat market," said one European trader."This would open up enormous opportunities for new sales in Western Europe and the United States."

But the rise in food prices may be exaggerated, says a French professional, for whom the market is driven by purely financial factors.

"When the market (Chicago) won a dollar in four days, not for fundamental reasons," said he. "The decline, if it occurs, will be equally severe."

Laurent-Perrier announces increase of 17.3% of its turnover in the first quarter of fiscal 2010-2011, the group enjoying champagne strong exports to the United Kingdom, the United States, the Germany and Asia.

The turnover in Q1 (April 1-June 30) reached 36.8 million euros against 31.4 million a year earlier.

The export sales have reached 69.5% of sales of the brand, a gain of 6.7 points compared to first quarter of last year.

"If it confirms the recovery in demand, growth in volumes in the first quarter should not be extrapolated over the whole year," the company said in a statement, adding nevertheless that the price / mix should gradually recover in coming quarters.

The group generates a significant portion of its revenues in the third quarter (October-December), corresponding to the festive season to season.

The results of the first half ended September 30, 2010 will be published on 1 December 2010.

The stock has increased by 24.4% since the beginning of the year, after declining 8.5% in 2009. It has a market capitalization of 400 million euros.

The Spanish bank Banesto publishes an interim result down 6.8% due to the recognition of a higher amount of provisions for bad debts, which impacted the margins of the establishment.

The Spanish bank has registered a net profit of 381.7 million euros, while analysts polled by Reuters had expected 376 million euros.

Banesto, majority owned by Spanish bank Santander and the first to publish its interim results, said it recorded $ 85 million of exceptional provisions.

The ratio of Banesto related bad loans to total loans stood at 3.48% against 3.12% at end-March, while analysts at Citi said they expect that this ratio reaches a peak during the year 2011.

The net interest income, or about what a bank earns on loans decreased costs related to its deposit, rose 0.5% to 863.6 million euros against 855 million expected by analysts.

Around 7:15 GMT, gaining 0.8%, while the Stoxx index comprising the major European banking stocks was virtually unchanged at the same moment (-0.05%).

The players in the credit market begin the second half hoping to disappear or at least diminish the negative impact of the crisis of sovereign debt in the eurozone, which has largely contributed to the resurgence of risk aversion in the second quarter.

This crisis, which does not seem to have exhausted all its reserves, has hurt all risky assets, starting with the shares losing 7% to 19% since the beginning of the year in Europe.

Corporate bonds (corporate credit) have also suffered, premiums (spreads) having substantially eliminated.But they broadly maintain performance of 3.6% since the beginning of the year, while government bonds from all countries, took 2.4%.

"The second quarter of 2010 defeated the job right the first quarter due to the escalation of the crisis of sovereign debt.Risk aversion has increased rapidly, all assets have suffered (…) Credit spreads have strayed far beyond their level of early 2010, "credit strategists explain the General Society in their quarterly report.

Also taking stock of the quarter, analysts of Raiffeisen Capital Management noted that the credit offers "indisputably positive returns" to the beginning of the year.

But they add that with the sharp decline in bond rates – including German rates that serve as reference in the euro area – linked to the flight to quality stocks, "the potential of absolute return is now very limited."

"The high yield bonds (high yield bonds), the positive fundamentals, seem more attractive," they say.

Groupama Asset Management, as Societe Generale predicts a slowdown of the economy, promote investment grade credit and approach "stock picking" for high yield.

TIGHTENING OF SPREADS

Amund Asset Management, a leading European asset management, which is more optimistic about global growth, also favors the credit.

The sovereign crisis has largely closed the secondary credit market. The primary market, which had started on a flying in January led by financials, has been almost nonexistent from mid-April but has shown signs of lethargy output.

"The market recovered slowly and now spreads are improving.We believe that sovereign issues have less impact on the market and the spreads will be tighter at the end of the year compared to levels earlier this year, "say the strategists of Societe Generale.

After a very active quarter on the primary market, they are reviewing their forecasts down significantly from private bond issues to take into account also the small traditional activity in the third quarter.

They now expect 110 billion on non-financial corporate issues in 2010, or 55% less than in 2009 which was a record year where businesses, faced with tighter bank credit due to financial crisis, have use the market to restore their balance sheets.

They no longer need as use the market given the low investment costs, a lack of mergers and acquisitions and the continued improvement of treasury already abundant.

Societe Generale brings its projected emissions of senior debt of financial companies from 200 to 150 billion euros for 2010, against 152 billion in 2009. For emissions of subordinated debt, the forecast is reduced from 33 to 20 billion euros, against 17 billion in 2009.

The latest version of the legislation on the reform of financial regulation has been adopted Friday by a committee of Parliamentarians American.

To be finally ratified, the text must still be approved by the Senate and the House of Representatives, then be subject to presidential signature by July 4.

U.S. legislators have therefore put a stop to the proposed overhaul of financial regulation in the country, having reached agreement on new restrictions on banking activities and proposed a compromise on the issue of derivatives.

It was around midnight at the U.S. negotiators Democrats have managed to find a first ground on the two thorniest issues of the bill.

The two clauses in question are intended to protect the banks' assets in risky activities of proprietary trading, causing the financial crisis of 2007-2009 which resulted in a deep recession and have led the state to fly to the rescue of the banking sector.

The Democrats were under pressure to complete their work within the next few hours, before President Barack Obama becoming engaged in discussions with leaders at the G20 summit in Toronto this week-end.

After 15 hours of intense negotiations, Democrats have finally agreed on a modified version of the so-called "Volcker rule" designed to restrict trading on own account and prohibit banks or the least strictly regulate their involvement in hedge funds and private equity investment.

MODEL TYPE

This relaxation would allow such banks to invest up to 3% of their total Tier 1 capital, core capital in hedge funds and private equity investment.

The project oversight of the derivatives market has however more trouble for lawmakers.This market 615,000 billion has to exacerbate the crisis and led to such a rescue of 182 billion dollars of public money for the insurer American International Group.

Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln has reached a compromise with Treasury representatives aimed at forcing banks to divide their swaps which will also offer the opportunity to reach a wider variety of house swaps.

After hours of negotiation, other Democratic lawmakers have finally reached its position.

Dozens of Democrats in the House of Representatives, saying it would strengthen offshore activities, threatened to vote against the entire bill if continuation of this proposal.

Carrying out such a bill would be for Democrats a victory on the legislative front, after the health reform passed this year, more significant than the midterm elections will be held in November.

If the purpose of this bill, which has nearly 2,000 pages, is to avoid a global crisis similar to that which began in 2007, it will create a strong contrast constraints on the banking sector and could deprive him of several billion dollars in revenue.

Wall Street has launched major maneuvers to sink the project, despite a growing popular protest criticizing the bank failures and bonuses of executives. The Democrats had to suppress their ambitions, however radical overhaul so as not to deprive the votes of parliamentarians "centrist".

The European Commission has condemned the French Bolloré to pay a fine of 21 million euros for price fixing in the market for carbonless paper.

The Commission fined Bolloré fined 22.68 million euros in December 2001 but the company had appealed to the European Court of Justice annulled the decision in September 2009 for procedural issues.

"The Commission has re-adopted the decision by correcting the procedural error that led to the cancellation of the 2001 decision," the EU executive said in a statement.

It has reduced the original amount of the fine to reflect the cooperation of Bolloré.

The U.S. agency mortgage refinance Fannie Mae, which had a significant stake in the subprime crisis, said Monday in a loss of 11.5 billion dollars in the first quarter, and asked the federal Treasury to grant further 8.4 billion dollars by the end of June to offset its deficit. "Our first quarter results are due primarily to costs associated with credit, which remain high due to weaknesses in the economy and market américainde residential property," said Fannie Mae said in a statement.

The additional $ 8.4 billion requested to be added for an additional $ 15.3 billion already disbursed by the Treasury on March 31, intended to fill the deficit in December 31, 2009."Given the current trends in housing and financial markets, we continue to expect net deficits in the future, and therefore we will obtain additional funding from Treasury," the company said.

This aid, granted in exchange for preference shares held by U.S. taxpayers also costs for Fannie Mae, who had to pay first quarter dividend of $ 1.5 billion to the federal government, widening its quarterly loss Group share 13.1 billion.

The credit losses increased from the fourth quarter 2009 and first quarter 2010, from 4.1 to 5.1 billion, "reflecting the increased number of defaults, partially offset by a slight reduction in the magnitude of these losses, "the company said.

The rate of seizures has increased in the first quarter, Fannie Mae said: macroeconomic conditions and "the protracted decline in prices of residential property at the national level continue to lead to an increasing proportion of our loans go from being of default than before.

And given the minimum time for them to sell foreclosed properties (unfinished evictions, repairs, legal deadlines to allow property owners to eventually settle their debts to stay home ..), the body just to put on the market properties seizures, delaying the cash flow.

Last week, the other major parastatal mortgage refinancing, Freddie Mac, had published a quarterly loss of 7.980 billion and $ 10.6 billion requested additional assistance from Treasury.

In late March, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner had estimated that the reform Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae should expect "a period of greater stability in financial markets." The Treasury had announced in late December that it would close until end 2012 loss of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

The two bodies were placed under the supervision of the U.S. government in September 2008, at the height of the crisis, when they threatened to collapse under the weight of their debt. Since then, the state has pumped hundreds of billions of dollars to keep them afloat.

How will the bailout work of the euro?

To stem the panic that erupted late last week, the states of the euro area have been working throughout the weekend and agreed on a massive rescue plan on several floors, as shown in this graphic.

The ECB breaks a taboo

It is an essential part of rescue plan devised this weekend in Brussels. While he did not hear of it, Jean-Claude Trichet has agreed that the European Central Bank buys government debt. All explanations in this article.