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.

Heineken, the world's third largest brewer, said Wednesday a larger increase than expected half-year net income, reducing costs offset declining sales of beer in Europe and North America.

The Dutch group, whose main brands are Heineken and Amstel, saw sales volumes fall 2.3% on a comparable basis in the first six months of the year, but lower costs, the prices of raw materials and financial burdens, and the contribution of its joint ventures have enabled him to increase its net profit by 17% to 621 million euros.

Twelve analysts surveyed by Reuters had forecast an average result of 595 million.

In the exchanges of Amsterdam, Heineken action reduced its gains at midday, after gaining more than 2% in the morning and signed one of the most Shakers in the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index.

Some analysts suggest the group's exposure to the austerity measures in Europe to explain the slowdown.

Despite his good half, Heineken said to be cautious about the prospects of the beer market in Europe and the United States due to continued weakness in consumer spending in general and announced fiscal austerity plans.

Its sales volumes should continue to grow in parallel in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

LITTLE IMPACT OF THE INCREASE OF GRAIN

The results presented Wednesday included two months on the contribution of the activities of FEMSA Mexican beer, bought by Heineken in order to increase its presence in emerging markets.

Last year, Heineken has done a little more than half its sales in Western Europe. On Wednesday, he assured that the integration of FEMSA is proceeding satisfactorily and that it should generate synergies in the second half.

"Cost savings are slightly higher than expected, the contribution of FEMSA, too," said Trevor Stirling, an analyst at Bernstein Research.

"I do not see why the second half would be worse than the first.This should not be as bad in Eastern Europe and this should improve the United States (…) The fundamental dynamic is healthy. "

The group said growth forecasts of at least 10% of its net earnings over the whole year, indicating that volume trends in Latin America, Africa and Asia, as well as price increases , continue to have an impact on profitability.

The CEO of Heineken, Jean-Francois van Boxmeer, described the first half of "robust" and added that the recent rise in grain prices, driven by drought in Russia, would have little impact on the consolidated because purchases are concluded a year in advance and are largely covered before harvest.

"For the part that we have to cover, we must wait until the market calms down," he said during a teleconference.

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.

Wall Street opened up after the publication of a series of better than forecast, reassuring investors who feared a slowdown in U.S. economic recovery.

A few minutes after the start of trading, the DJIA gained 0.22% to 10,252.59 points, the Standard & Poor's 500 index 0.44% to 1087.88 points and the Nasdaq Composite 0.35% to 2230.22 points.

The title Apple earned $ 262 4% after reporting a result well above expectations, boosted by higher sales of its Mac computers.

Prices are also supported by banking stocks Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo have both published results better than expected, reassuring investors concerned about the health of the U.S. banking sector.

Both titles and took respectively 7.06% and 4.36% in early trade.

European shares move up on Thursday morning, boosted by the continued rebound in bank stocks, as investors are increasingly likely to believe that the results of stress tests will be less catastrophic than they feared.

The bank also boosted by a change of opinion on the sector by Credit Suisse, which went to "balance line" cons "underperformance" before.

Around 9:50, the pan-European index STOXX Europe 600 Banks gained 1.76%.

In Paris, Dexia gained 3.92%, 3.42% Natixis, BNP Paribas 2.93%, 3.13% Societe Generale and Credit Agricole 1.10%.

The trend is also positive for banks in the rest of Europe.

Barclays rose as 3.72% and 1.11% of Santander Intesa 1.81%.

Nicolas Sarkozy has once again ruled out any increase in compulsory levies to finance the pension reform, but confirmed that efforts would be applied to high income and capital income, Monday, May 10 at the sides.

"There is (…) two solutions that do not seem desirable: touch the pensions of retirees and believe, as so often in the past that rising tax burden would be the answer to all our problems," said M . Sarkozy during his opening statement released by the presidency.

"It would in fact reduce the living standards of the French and penalize growth.I am deeply convinced that a demographic challenge must first demographic responses "such as delaying the age of retirement or increasing the contribution period, he added, referring the issue of pensions, though not the agenda of the Social Summit.

Labour Minister Eric Woerth had mentioned last week, one of the tracks government work, an increase in resources for Old Age Solidarity Fund (FSV), mainly fueled by a fraction of revenues from the CSG (Contribution Sociale generalized).

Nicolas Sarkozy has once again vowed on Monday to trade unions and employers that the planned reform would be "fair", confirming such an "additional financial effort high income and capital income.

The Head of State also confirmed that Eric Woerth made public next week a "guidance document which will indicate the principles set for the reform, which will be a new stage of comprehensive cooperation."