International Business News

The U.S. places have opened on a slightly downward Thursday, torn between statistics on jobs better than expected and concerns about U.S. consumer Publications mixed after several distributors.

In early trade, the Dow dropped 0.08% to 13,258.81 points. The Standard & Poor's, wider, yielding 0.11% at 1400.55 points while the Nasdaq composite lost 0.23% to 3052.65 points.

The number of jobless in the U.S. fell more than expected during the week to April 28, showed the figures published by the Labor Department.

But concerns over consumption weigh on the market, while according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters of 15 distribution groups that have published their sales figures, seven were worse than pre ; seen by consensus.

U.S. investors did not react to the announcements of the ECB and its president Mario Draghi. The central bank has maintained the status quo on rates.

Values, Costco Wholesale fell by 1.3%. The U.S. distributor saw sales grow by 4% in April on a comparable basis, while analysts expected a more pronounced increase of 5.1%.

In the same area, the retail giant Home Depot fell by 0.6%, the largest decline in the Dow Jones.

General Motors gave 0.7% after surging more than 6% in pre-market trading. The automaker reported earnings higher than expected in the first quarter, driven by strong demand in North America and a smaller loss than expected in Europe.

Kensey Nash Corp. soared 32.4% after the announcement of its acquisition by the Dutch group of food chemistry and DSM for $ 360 million.

Wall Street ended higher Friday, as a result of strong corporate earnings often, especially high tech values ​​such as Amazon. Com and Expedia began to counterbalance the economic indicators for the less mixed lately, like the GDP released Friday.

The Dow Jones gained 23.69 points (0.18%) to 13,228.31. The S & P 500 is 3.38 points (0.24%) to 1,403.36. The Nasdaq Composite gained 18.59 points (0.61%) to 3,069.20.

Over the whole week, the Dow shows a gain of 1.5%, the S & P 500 gained 1.8%, while the Nasdaq 2.3% advance.

The Dow and S & P and enroll their weekly gain the highest since mid-March. For the Nasdaq, is the more substantial gain since early February.

Of the 287 companies in the S & P 500 that have published their accounts, 73% of the students have exceeded the consensus, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The gains of the day, even though moderate minimal, yet allow Wall Street to make its best weekly performance since more than a month.

Growth of the U.S. economy slowed in the first quarter mainly because of declining business investment, although the strength of the automotive market has helped ease the movement.

Another statistic was published on Friday, held better than GDP. 

The U.S. consumer sentiment improved slightly in April to its highest level since February 2011, according to final data from the monthly survey Thomson Reuters -University of Michigan.

Values, Amazon.com and the online travel agency Expedia surged 15.75% respectively and 23.54%, the two companies that reported results Thursday at the higher consensus and having allowed the Nasdaq Composite to register a gain slightly higher than the Dow or S & P.

Procter & Gamble lowered its earnings forecast Friday yearly because of the fragility of developed markets, more aggressive pricing of its competitors on certain products and pressure on prices in Venezuela in particular.

The action yields 3.63%. 

Ford announced Friday a drop in quarterly profit, a result of his difficulties outside of the U.S. market, but the results exceeded the expectations of investors.

The action coward 2.27%.

Chevron released Friday net profit up 4% in the first quarter, boosted by higher oil prices and improved margins in its refining background of declining its oil and gas.

The action ended unchanged.

Merck published Friday quarterly earnings slightly above expectations, boosted by tighter control of costs, but revenue has however disappointed expectations facing generic competition.

The action eventually stationary.

The sanitation system of pensions and social benefits is underway. The state expects to save over 800 million euros a year. Three of the four ministers of the Greek far-right party Laos opposing the new austerity measures demanded by the creditors of the countries presented their resignations Friday, February 10

The Greek authorities have discovered two years about 200,000 cases of fraud and pension benefits, and expect the fight against these practices an annual saving of over 800 million, sources said Tuesday the Ministry of Labour.

Taking advantage of the carelessness and corruption of large parts of the administration, this large-scale fraud was on a range of schemes, pension after death that relatives of the deceased continued to receive disability pensions granted to Greeks perfectly valid, said the same sources. A total of sanitation system of pensions and benefits, via a generalized computerization underway, should allow Greece to save more than 800 million euros a year.

Assisted by police, the Ministry of Labour now back as a new track, that of firms reporting imputed social contributions – some 4,000 cases have already been identified – to sell at full price coverage for uninsured assets, nearly third of the workforce. About sixty of these companies is currently in the crosshairs.

With some 7 billion euros of social benefits per year, including $ 2 billion for unemployment benefits, Greece is the European average, but the effectiveness of these funds in the fight against poverty and exclusion is less to that country partners. Over the revelations of fraud have occurred in recent months, including the Greeks had discovered the case of the island of Zante in the Ionian Sea, showing an abnormally high rate of blind or that of the island of Kalymnos (southeast ), which appeared afflicted with high rates of mental illness.

Small and medium businesses, entrepreneurs and self-family businesses, which account for most of the economic fabric of the country, paying a heavy price for the Greek crisis. The European Commission is trying to address the funding problems they suffer. In Greece, six out of ten SMEs have seen their incomes decline in 2011.

Up to a thousand individual companies will put the key under the door every week in Greece in the first half of 2012 due to the serious crisis that is sinking the country, said Friday the European Commission, which seeks to root the problem.  

"Greece is facing an economic crisis and social crisis which is reflected in the situation of small and medium enterprises: six out of ten companies have seen their incomes decline in 2011 and 150,000 jobs were lost," said the Commission in a press on the sidelines of the visit to Athens Friday the European Commissioner for Industry, Antonio Tajani. "It is estimated that during the first half of 2012, up to 1,000 small businesses have closed every week," said the statement, which does not provide estimates on the number of companies created in parallel.

The Commission therefore calls for increased aid to these companies, self-entrepreneurs and family businesses, which form the bulk of the Greek economic fabric. Since last September, the European Union through its Task Force for Greece including trying to find ways to overcome the credit crunch affecting SMEs, banks, deficit, cut off from markets and dependent on the ECB, having suspended loans. In March, a special guarantee fund, with 500 million euros, was created by the EU to promote through the European Investment Bank lending to SMEs up to a billion euros.

According to the Commission, in 2010, Greece had 742,600 very small businesses, employing a total of 2.512 million employees, over 85% of total employment in the country, a record level in the EU. These structures produce 35.3% of the value added of the country against 21.8% on average in the EU. With 14% of employees on average in Greece, against 33% in the rest of the EU, large companies they create 28% of the value added, highlighting the low productivity of small businesses in Greece, the Commission added.

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 new lawyer's former trader Jerome Kerviel, who was sentenced in 2010 to five years in prison for three farm loss of 4.9 billion suffered by the bank Société Générale ; eral in 2008, renewed the assault of his former company.

David Koubbi me, who just succeeded Olivier Metzner to defend the prisoner for his appeal hearing in June, wrote to the chairmen of the Assembly Finance e and Senate to be surprised that SocGen could receive a tax deduction of nearly 1.7 billion euros in compensation from the e episode.

In his letter obtained by Reuters has learned me Koubbi asks Jérôme Cahuzac Philippe Marini and the convening of a commission on this episode. This request will remain a dead letter at least for now, the Parliament sitting over pending legislative elections in June

But it is a way for Jerome Kerviel, also condemned in first instance to repay 4.9 billion euros, to start the assault on his former company , it has always accused of being informed of their risk practices and turning a blind eye as they pertained.

Koubbi is me in his letter that a tax deduction for exceptional loss is legally possible that if there were no obvious deficiency in the controls. Now this is the case, since the Banking Commission fined 4 million euros to SocGen in 2008 for this failure.

"It seems to me that the allocation of that amount in favor of Societe Generale goes against the established case law applicable to the deduction tax (…) I therefore ask you to convene a committee to inform our citizens, "the lawyer wrote in his letters.

Convicted of embezzlement, forgery and using false and fraudulent intrusion into a system of data processing, Jerome Kerviel, who was also sentenced to ; repay the loss, is currently free and still has not paid, the appeal is suspensive. 

The trial court ruled that he had deliberately violated his professional engagements and hidden the reality of its position in its hierarchy.

The young man admitted pronouncements risk of dizzy from 2005 to 2008 on European equity market indices, reaching nearly 50 billion euros, and camouflaged by other reversals of orders fictitious market, expected to cover the risk.

Unsettled after the announcement of their discovery by the bank, in full rout of financial markets, these positions, which were once largely the beneficiaries, ultimately caused a net loss of 4.9 billion euros.

The Spanish government Friday unveiled a package of measures to fight against tax evasion, as the country seeks to achieve its fiscal targets and avoid the need for economic aid external.

According to several independent economists, the economy in Spain represent almost a fifth of gross domestic product (GDP), many Spaniards at work using black and pre ; ferring cash payments.

The government proposes to ban cash payments for amounts exceeding € 2,500 and require taxpayers to report assets held by them abroad.

Violators would face fines. 

According to Cristobal Montoro, Spanish Minister of the Treasury, these measures will enable the government to increase its revenues, though he declined to quantify the expected amount.

Madrid announced on March 30 to drastic budget cuts to achieve 27 billion euros in savings and convince markets that the country is able to reduce its deficit and avoid seeking international assistance.

The limit on cash payments will not apply to individuals who are not habitually resident in Spain or to tourist spending.

"This is to encourage tourists who bring foreign currency in Spain and want to spend in Spain," explained Cristobal Montoro. 

The tourism industry represents nearly 10% of Spanish GDP and remains one of the few sectors still able to sustain an economy as moribund.

As to measures affecting property held abroad, they will target the bank accounts, life insurance policies and actions. A fine of at least 10,000 euros will hit the undeclared goods, warned the government.

The unemployment rate in Greece has reached a new record in January to 21.8% against 21.2% in December, said Thursday the department of statistics Elstat, confirming that the measures austerity and the debt crisis continue to weigh on the labor market.

The budget cuts imposed by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to bail out the country has sparked a wave of closures and bankruptcies.

Beginning in April, the unemployment figures are Greek seasonally adjusted.

The average unemployment rate in the euro area was 10.7% in January against 10.6% in December.

Fortunately, the index of construction costs no longer used for rent reviews. It increased by 6.85% over one year to the end of 2011 to reach a record level. A construction of new homes and office buildings in Marseille.

The index of construction costs (ICC) in France continues to climb. It increased by 6.85% year on year to reach 1,638 points in the fourth quarter of 2011, above its record dating from the previous quarter, announced the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) on Friday. The ICC, which was 1,624 points in the third quarter of 2011, had previously reached an all time high in the third quarter 2008 to 1,594 points.

Year on year, the CHF increases and 6.85% after rising 6.84% in the third quarter of 2011, 5.01% in the second quarter and 3.05% in the first quarter. Since the law of personal services from 26 July 2005, the ICC is no longer a reference to the rent review during the lease in the private rental market. He was replaced by the benchmark rents (IRL), which is now based on the index of consumer prices excluding tobacco and rents, since the enactment of the law for purchasing power in February 2008 . However, the index of construction costs is a reference for the revision of certain commercial rents, alongside the commercial rent index.

The German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has admitted for the first time Monday that the initiative to introduce a tax on financial transactions in the euro area was bound to e failure.

"We simply can not do it, even in the euro area alone," said Schaeuble in Berlin, referring to the Franco-German initiative to bail out of public finances with by the financial crisis. "We will therefore try something else."

Britain and other European countries do not support this tax, commonly known as "Robin Hood Tax," he said Schäuble, adding that the establishment of such a tax n ' was conceivable that across the EU.

A working paper of the European Commission is the basis for thinking of this tax, which could raise up to 57 billion euros, mainly from London, the leading financial center of the EU.

France must introduce in the coming months its own tax, similar to stamp duty imposed on the London stock exchange transactions.