International Business News

European shares ended Friday declined, while Wall Street turned down, in a context that is marked by fears about the crisis in the eurozone.

In Paris the CAC 40 finished down 0.13% (3.99 points) to 3,008.00 points. The Paris index lost 3.89% on the week and 4.8% since the beginning of the year.

The UK FTSE dropped 1.33% and 0.60% the German Dax, while the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index ended down by 1.18% to 969.81 points, at lowest since December.

Going against the trend, some banks have rebounded, including Santander (2.97%) and BNP Paribas (2.94%), supported by the rumor of a reintroduction of the ban on sales to die covered on banking stocks.

Fitch downgraded the ratings on Thursday night in Greece, citing the growing risk of leaving the country monetary union, while Moody's has downgraded 16 Spanish banks, citing the ability reduced by the Spanish state to help them. 

On Wall Street, the entrance of Facebook on the Nasdaq has temporarily obscured the uncertainties created by the political situation in Greece. But the market turned downward, and the action of the first global social network, which debuted at 42.05 dollars, quickly erased its gains to return around its IPO price of $ 38.

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The number of new firms declined 9.8% in France in April after rising 8.3% in March, according to data released Wednesday by INSEE. A total of 46,042 enterprises have emerged in April.

Start-ups fell by 9.8% in April compared with the previous month if one takes into account the self-entrepreneurs, announced Wednesday the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE).

Excluding self-entrepreneurs, the balance of new firms declined 3.5%, adjusted for seasonal variations and the number of working days, INSEE said in a statement. A total of 46,042 enterprises have emerged in April, among which, when adjusted, 20,035 companies "classic". The self-contractors are responsible for more than a creation of two businesses (26,007 seasonally adjusted).  

INSEE said do not know enough about the seasonal pattern of self-entrepreneurs, the regime created relatively recently (January 2009), to correct the number depending on the season. The cumulative number of creations in the months of February, March and April 2012 is up slightly over the same period last year (0.8%).

The sectors contributing most to this increase were information and communication and construction. The number of start in the 12 months ended in late April is down from the previous 12 months (-4.0%).

The net private capital flight from Russia has already reached $ 43 billion in April. At this rate the figure of 80.5 billion recorded in 2011 could be beaten. Vladimir Putin.

The election of Vladimir Putin in March may have ended the political uncertainties but not the flight of private capital observed for two years in Russia. "Capital flight continued in April, to $ 8 billion, according to our preliminary estimates," said Monday the Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Klepach was quoted by RIA Novosti news agency. And the Russian official expects a continuation of mouvenment in May.

"Capital flight is much stronger than expected," added Mr. Klepach. In April, the Russian Central Bank (BCR) had indicated that net private capital flight from Russia had reached nearly $ 35.1 billion in first quarter 2012. In 2011, she had more than doubled compared to last year, to $ 80.5 billion, against $ 34.4 billion in 2010.

To explain this phenomenon, the leaders of the Russian Central Bank has repeatedly complained of the poor investment climate in Russia. The acceleration of this phenomenon is also due to the global financial crisis, making loans harder to obtain, put a stop to capital inflow in Russia, according to rating agency Standard and Poor's. The agency had also discussed the "political uncertainties" that weighed before the presidential election of March 4, won by the country's strongman, Vladimir Putin.

CNP Assurances announced Friday that the market decline of savings in Europe had continued to weigh on its sales in the first quarter and said the change of government in France maintained the uncertainty the life insurance industry.

The turnover of the insurer fell 12.9% during the first three months of the year, to 7.028 billion euros.

The action CNP Assurances signed Friday in early trading shrinkage greater than that of the sector to 9:50, the title lost 2.27% to 9.7330 euros, while the European index limited its losses to 1.35%.

"There is a wait due to the structure of taxation and savings in general," he said during a conference call the Director Financial Group, Antoine Lissowski. 

He explained that it was difficult to assess the impact that doubling the ceiling of the Livret planned by President-elect Francois Hollande on appetite of French for life insurance.

It is currently suffering from competition from banks, seeking to attract customers and their deposits with savings accounts attractive.

The persistence of low interest rates also makes traditional life insurance products unattractive in terms of yield.

Despite a set back, CNP Assurances has managed to generate a first quarter net profit up 1.8% to 275 million euros through improved financial markets. 

The group took advantage of the upturn to continue its program of disposals of risky assets, particularly in Italy and Spain.

"The improved market conditions in the first quarter allowed us to record an increase in our earnings while actively pursuing our strategy of selling risky assets," said the director gen ; eral, Gilles Benoist, in a statement.

Antoine Lissowski said his group no longer had to date of Greek sovereign debt and had reduced its exposure to equity markets.

The CFO did not want to comment on the planned replacement of Gilles Benoist.

NOC has postponed its annual meeting from 7 to 29 June, after the parliamentary elections. 

At that time a new boss of the Caisse des Depots (CDC), the majority shareholder of NOC, should have been appointed.

Director General of the CDC until early March, Augustin de Romanet applied for membership to the estate of Gilles Benoist as Director General of NPC.

The British telecoms operator BT said on Thursday a 12% increase in its annual dividend, its cost savings and solid demand in broadband that led to its beneficial ; fice and its cash flow despite an overall decline in sales.

BT, which has relied in recent years of spending cuts and efficiencies to power its cash, has also pledged that his dividend increased by 10 to 15% per year over the next three years.

"In what remains a difficult environment, we recorded another year of earnings growth and free cash flow," said CEO Ian Livingston. 

BT, which competes with Virgin Media and TalkTalk, shows a steady improvement in its performance since the profit warnings issued in 2008 and 2009, and because of the strict control its costs.

The full year, earnings from main businesses grew 3% to 6.1 billion pounds despite a 4% drop in sales , to 19 billion pounds (23.65 billion euros).

The cash flow appears considerably higher than projected at 2.5 billion pounds.

BT results were supported by an agreement in March to fill the deficit of 4.1 billion pounds pension fund's staff decided more quickly than before. The announcement was relieved investors by opening the door to a potential increase in dividends.

Wall Street fell more than 1.2% Friday, accusing them of this fact its worst weekly performance since the beginning of the year, within the scope of the announcement of a number of new jobs for the month of April far below expectations.

The Dow Jones Industrial 30 yielded 1.27%, or 168.32 points to 13,038.27. The S & P-500, wider, lost 22.47 points, or 1.61%, to 1369.10. The Nasdaq Composite fell on its side of 67.96 points (-2.25%) to 2,956.34.

On the whole week, the Dow has sold 1.4%, the S & P 500 2.4% and Nasdaq 3.7%. The latter two had their worst week since November and December respectively.

Some 115,000 people were recruited in the nonagricultural sector last month, announced Friday the Labor Department, against 154,000 in March and 259,000 in February, two figures it is true revised ; s up (for a cumulative total of 53,000).

Economists anticipated 170,000 net new jobs for the month of April after the 120,000 originally announced for March.

The unemployment rate, calculated from a separate survey, returned to 8.1% of the workforce, against 8.2% in March and 8.3% in February, a level not seen since January 2009 when it was 7.8%. 

Despite this recent positive development, the market players have mostly retained the figure for job creation, which leads them to fear a slowdown in U.S. growth.

At its current level, it is already considered insufficient to significantly reduce unemployment.

The approach of elections in Greece and France and any uncertainties they may have a Europe which still has not put the debt crisis behind it also contributed to stopping the coast.

"Market participants liquidated their positions after the employment figures and should not change posture throughout the weekend," said Frank Lesh, an analyst at FuturePath Trading LLC. 

The energy values ​​were strongly accused the coup after the employment statistics, due to fears of a possible slowdown weigh on demand black.

Because of these fears, the price per barrel of U.S. light crude also fell 4%, from below $ 100 for the first time since February. The S & P compartment of the energy of Wall Street has sold 2.17%.

The action Exxon Mobil sold 1.26% to 84.57 dollars and Chevron that of 2.14% to 103.72 dollars, the two values ​​are among the largest declines in the Dow Jones .

The area composed of values ​​related to utilities, considered defensive in times of uncertainty, is the only one that ended in the green, with a gain of 0.16%.

The action Estee Lauder has lost 5.35% to 60.72 dollars after the U.S. cosmetics group announced earnings guidance deemed disappointing for the fourth quarter of fiscal year and expressed his concerns about the slowdown in China. 

The way LinkedIn has instead won 7.21% to 117.30 dollars after the professional social network has raised its annual results after better than expected first quarter, supported by strong growth in business services.

The action took Dole 7.69% to 9.39 dollars after the distributor of fruits and vegetables said he could split some divisions following a strategic review its activities.

Pierre Mariani, the Group CEO, denied Wednesday it had set conditions for his eventual departure of the head of the Franco-Belgian bank being de mantling, ensuring that no decision had been taken on his replacement.

Several Belgian newspapers reported that the Belgian government would like to replace Pierre Mariani by Karel De Boeck, former CEO of Fortis.

According to these newspapers, the current Group CEO would be willing to leave his position as number two in the bank if they receive a severance package of 1.2 million euros stipulated in its contract. 

"The Group CEO has made no request to the Belgian and French about the conditions of his eventual departure contrary to news reports published so far," re ; Pierre Mariani is in an email to Reuters.

"No decision on the replacement of the CEO and President (Jean-Luc Dehaene, Ed) Board has been taken to date" he continues.

Dexia Bank, already saved from bankruptcy in 2008 by Belgium, France and Luxembourg, was forced into last fall due to the dismantling of sovereign debt crisis. 

Luc Coene, the Governor of the Central Bank of Belgium (NBB) said Monday that the bank, which enjoys state guarantees for its refinancing needs, would probably need to be recapitalized again e.

The group has since seen its market capitalization crisis collapse. Currently, the bank is valued at about 350 million euros on the stock market with a share price at only 0.18 euros.

"CONFIDENCE TO PETER MARIANI"

Asked by Reuters, Michel Bouvard, president of the supervisory board of the Caisse des Depots (CDC), Dexia's largest shareholder with 17.7% stake, has in turn brought ; support for Pierre Mariani.

"Personally, I have every confidence in Pierre Mariani," said Michel Bouvard. "When you are in managing a complex issue, which is the case, it is better that he who began managing the file management ends until one goes to the next step. "

"I did not speak on matters of internal governance of Dexia," he nevertheless wished to emphasize.

Since the decision late last year to dismantle Dexia, the Belgian authorities have carried out the nationalization of retail banking activities in Belgium while the France has decided to return via the CDC and the Postal Bank, the activities of local government financing.

The European Commission must still approve the plan and set the price that Dexia will have to pay in exchange for 90 billion euros of state guarantees provided. 

Dexia posted a net loss of 11.6 billion euros in 2011 and some analysts said the bank could continue to generate losses in the coming years.

Although in sharp decline, the size of the stock of Dexia is considered by some analysts as a systemic failure to pay the bank would have incalculable consequences for the entire system European banking.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange ended down 0.82% Thursday, erasing gains from yesterday in the wake of Wall Street, investors fearing the results of a major auction of Spanish debt provided in the Day.

The Nikkei lost 78.88 points to 9,588.38 points and the Topix broader, yielded 5.14 points (0.63%) to 814.13 points.

At the opening, investors reacted to the downturn on Wall Street by making clearances. But following the publication of figures in the trade balance of Japan, a weaker yen on the foreign exchange market helped limit losses.

The downturn in the Japanese currency has allowed exporters including Toyota and Nissan to earn 0.9% and 0.24%.

Japanese exports rose in March at an annual rate for the first time in six months, mainly due to inflows into the United States but the high price of its crude imports weighs on its trade balance, back into the red.

The owner of Viking Ocean Cruises canceled its order for two ships passed in December shipyards in St. Nazaire, said Thursday the direction of STX France.

Both boats "high end", representing a total of 4 million hours of work needed to be delivered in spring 2014 and spring 2015.

"This decision is bad news, first for all (of) employees, as it will take several months to try to fill that hole load immediate, especially for its offices studies, whose workload will be directly and immediately affected, "writes the shipbuilding company in a statement. 

Subsidiary of Viking River Cruises, Inc. specializes in river cruises, Viking Ocean Cruises has decided to "continue discussions for the construction project with one of our competitors," said STX, which notes elsewhere "that to date no other site does was given command of ships".

The unions of the shipyards of Saint-Nazaire, the cancellation of the order is due to failure of the financial operation.

"Compared to other European countries, France is missing today in a state bank be able to mount such files," responded Marc Menager, delegate CFDT union of the company, which speaks of a "miserable failure". 

"The state must take the emergency measures imposed by the state to save sites", said for his part-Prinborgne Nathalie Durand, secretary of the Workers' Force, claiming and controlling an aircraft carrier and a fourth helicopter carrier for the French Navy.

Partial unemployment measures had already been announced a week ago by management to face the hollow charge provided on the second half of 2012. They were to receive consulting firms, especially weapons and fabrication shops.

STX France is a branch of shipbuilding group STX South Korean, in which the French state owns a 33.34%.

The company is currently completing the construction of a ship commanded by a Libyan state company, but bought last month by the Italian-Swiss owner MSC after freeze international assets of the Gaddafi regime.

The shipyards of Saint-Nazaire have also started building a small luxury liner on behalf of the German cruise line Hapag Lloyd Cruises and two helicopter carriers for the Russian Navy.

European shares ended Wednesday at their lowest closing levels for three weeks, concerns about U.S. growth and the fiscal situation of Spain showing the above.

In Paris the CAC 40 lost 1.14% to close at 3430.15 points, just below its 50-day moving average and its lowest in March 23.

The London Stock Exchange yielded 1.03% and 1.13% in Frankfurt. The benchmark index of the Madrid Stock Exchange dropped 1.96%.

Of the European indices, the Eurostoxx 50 was down 1.13% to 2,496.68 points – in its 50-day moving average – and Eurofirst 300 lost 1.02% to 1,072.48 points – just above his own.

"The markets were down with the bank, especially Spanish because of sluggish economic outlook in Spain, and durable goods orders subdued in the U.S.," said Alexandre Le Drogoff, manager special ; cialist of technical analysis in Talence Management.

He believes that the next support is at 3396 points for the CAC 40 or the "gap" opened on March 8, then from 3350 to 3360 points, its lowest points in February and March. 

As for values, Total (-1.4%) again weighed on the CAC 40, as before, following the gas leak on one of its deposits in the North Sea.

Bank stocks were cyclical and the most affected by the current sales, including Spanish banks Banco Popular, which lost 3.31% and Bankia which lost 3.61%.

Oil prices fell back, Brent losing 1.3% to 123.92 dollars a barrel, after rising more than expected U.S. inventories last week.