News & Financial Advice

The month is September is historically the less buoyant year for Wall Street.And this year, economic indicators expected during the first days of the month will put the nerves of investors challenged at risk to initiate a new downtrend.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost nearly 13% since April, gradually accumulating as disappointing economic indicators which have fueled fears of "double dip" relapse into recession after the 2008 crisis -2009.

But the benchmark index of the place New York has so far found strong support around the threshold of 1,040 points, while penetration of the support triggering a wave of purchases.

The Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke reassured the markets at least temporarily, saying Friday that the Fed was ready to act if the economic situation deteriorates. But indicators coming days may revive concern.

"The indicators tend to be consistently to be below expectations," said Nick Kalivas, equity analyst for MF Global."I think that these indicators will trigger new sales next week."

Monthly statistics of the labor market expected Friday should show that 99,000 jobs have been destroyed in August, partly due to the end of temporary contracts linked to the decennial census, while job creation in the private sector should not exceed 42,000.

Until then, the ISM index of purchasing managers in industry and services will probably reflected a further slowdown in business growth.

The S & P 500 tested the threshold of 1040 points on two occasions during the past week but each time he finished the day up.This media has systematically encouraged buyers to return to the market over the past 10 months the index has not marked down so only once and briefly, in July.

DOMINATES THE SHORT TERM

The S & P 500, primary references many managers and analysts, finished Friday at 1064.59 points. If he drove the support of 1,040, it could fall in the range of 1010-1020 points.On the upside, he ran into resistance from its 14-day average at 1076.65, which limits its potential for recovery.

In the options market, this situation encourages the purchase of "put" on the S & P 500, which entitles the holders to sell futures on the index at a price fixed in advance.

"The overall feeling of investors in the options market has become very skeptical, purchases could go beyond the call buyers," said Ryan Detrick, senior technical analyst for Schaeffer's Investment.

The ratio "was able to call" used to measure changes in the general sentiment of the market, stood at 0.61 on Thursday, against 0.59 in average over the last 21 meetings.

Beyond the technical factors, investors will also monitor the statements of managers of major companies such as General Electric and Boeing at the conference "Global Industrials Unplugged" organized by Morgan Stanley.

On Friday, the semiconductor giant Intel cut its revenue forecast for the current quarter. Investors have largely ignored this warning, the Intel action ending the day up, but new estimates of this type could undermine the morale of the market.

Faced with such a combination of risk factors, many investors may take their time before returning to the market.Especially since September is historically the worst month for the three major indexes on Wall Street.

The wait will be promoted in the coming days by the prospect of a weekend of three days with the celebration of Labor Day Monday, September 6.

For Scott Marcouiller, head of technical strategy at Wells Fargo Advisors, a "rally" seems unlikely in the current context.

Enel has announced plans to launch the initial public offering (IPO) of its affiliate company specialized in renewable energies over the last two weeks of October.

The Italian group of community service, the actor in the sector the most indebted in Europe, hopes to raise between three and four billion euros in bringing to market a minority stake in Enel Green Power, which could be the largest such operation in Europe this year.

"The IPO will take place in the second half of October," said a spokesman for Enel Friday.

The banks involved in the operation on Friday met Chief Financial Officer of Enel, Luigi Ferraris, to discuss the case, said the spokesman, adding that the company continued with its parallel search for a buyer for participation .

This dual approach (dual track) means that in theory, Enel could abandon at the last minute to rate its subsidiary if the sale of OTC was a realistic alternative to public offerings.

"At the meeting with the banks this morning, the focus has been on the IPO, but this does not mean that the company abandoned its dual-track approach," said the spokesman.

Sources have told Reuters that the international coordinators of the IPO were Mediobanca, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Intesa Sanpaolo.

The leaders of the transaction are JP Morgan, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, BBVA and Unicredit.

Ingenico posted a net income multiplied by more than two in the first half thanks to the increase in transactions in Europe and raised its sales target.

The specialist in payment terminals is now 805-815000000 euros in turnover for 2010 while the group was counting on sales until now included in the top of the range from 790 to 805,000,000.

Its net profit was for the first half of 2010 to 11,200,000 euros, an increase of 133% compared to last year, returning to levels comparable to early 2008, while its net sales reached 395 million, up 10% over the first six months of 2009 on a comparable basis.

"The return to positive momentum in the second quarter we can see our goal of increasing revenue and our target operating margin adjusted for 2010, said Thursday in a statement Philip Lazarus, CEO of 'Ingenico.

The adjusted operating margin target of between 12.5% to 13% is thus maintained for 2010, same as the EBITDA margin between 16% and 17%.

The group had also exceeded its expectations for adjusted operating margin, which stood at 9.3% against a target level "comparable" to 8.6% in first half 2009 pro forma.

The Group's organic growth was driven by its performance in China, Germany and France.Ingenico has continued its acquisition strategy by taking control of both companies in the areas of services related to payments, Transfer To to Singapore and First Data Iberica in Spain.

On the historic market of payment terminals, the main competitors remain Ingenico Hypercom and VeriFone Americans.

At the close Thursday, as the group finished down slightly from 0.1% to 19.40 euros, bringing its market capitalization to nearly $ 950 million.

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 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 Nobel Prize in Economics Paul Krugman attacked in an interview published Monday in Germany's unofficial candidate to head the European Central Bank, saying that naming Axel Weber present a "substantial risk (…)" for the euro. Asked by the newspaper Handelsblatt in an appointment of the current president of the Bundesbank to take over from Jean-Claude Trichet, Mr. Krugman replied: "The risk for the euro area would be considerable."

Economist criticizes Dr. Weber, one of the favorites to head the ECB, interested only in the fight against inflation even if it means endangering growth. "The risk of contagion (problems) from Greece to Spain and Portugal to Italy would be much greater with a president so conservative for the ECB," he saidKrugman, recognizing not personally know the owner of the Bundesbank.

Weber is concerned about inflation even when there is not, "he joked, adding:" If you are looking for someone who wants a 0% inflation even when the unemployment rate is 13 %, Weber is your man. " "The ECB must become much more flexible and aggressive. His conservative politics is primarily due to the sensitivity of Germany", he also analyzed.

Unlike the American Fed, the ECB has a clear mandate to preserve price stability, and not to support growth. Mr. Krugman also criticizes implicitly the direction of German economic policy, now focused on fiscal restraint. "This is not the time to be worried about the deficit", said the Nobel Prize, in line with recent remarks by U.S. President Barack Obama.

Officially, the subject is not on the table. For its pension reform, Nicolas Sarkozy ruled out the possibility of reaching the level of pensions – and thus to contribute to today's retirees. However, the idea is more in tune with the times. The economist Patrick Artus and militates in favor of a form of redistribution from older to younger. As the founding Terra Nova, near the PS, it is about to publish a report on the mind-blowing subject. One of its main proposals: align the tax on retirement assets that, while it is now lower.

An idea supported by a growing number of experts. This is the case of Bruno Palier, a researcher at Cevipof and pension specialist: "The rate of the CSG paid by retirees is 6.6% against 7.5% for assets. Align the two already bring in three billion euros per year.The advantage of such a reform, according to the economist: it would spare the poorest pensioners, exempt from income tax, who do not pay either the CSG. "It is quite unfair to say they will tighten the rules only for those who will in the future, while the system is very generous to pensioners today," notes Francois Legendre, an economist at the center of Employment Studies and author of numerous works on pensions.

It must indeed distinguish reforms necessitated by the longer life expectancy than those imposed by the arrival at the age of retirement for many generations of post-war. "Baby boomers French have not taken the necessary measures to ensure the funding of their pensions. It is not normal that this weighs on active today.From this point of view, a transient increase in the CSG of retirees is defensible, "said Antoine Bozio co-signer, Thomas Piketty, of a proposed radical overhaul of the French pension system. According to this expert, the question does not arise if the baby boomers French had at the time they were active themselves, fed a pension reserve fund, as were the Swedes do, and even American …

See also: What you should know about pension reform

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.