International Business News

Steve Jobs resigned Wednesday from his position as CEO of Apple, which is now occupied by his right arm Tim Cook, saying he could no longer bear the load.

"I always said if I ever came to not being able to perform my duties and obligations as CEO of Apple, I'd be the first to let you know.Unfortunately, that day has come, "he wrote in a brief letter of resignation.

This letter and a terse statement from the firm at the apple raise more questions than answers about the health of Steve Jobs and the future of society.

These questions explain that Apple stock has dropped 7% in the post-closing transactions on Wall Street and has lost nearly 6% in Frankfurt in early trade.

There are only eight short sentences in the letter of resignation from Steve Jobs addressed the board as well as fans of Apple.

"I would serve if the board deems appropriate, as chairman of the board, directors and employees," writes Steve Jobs.

THE "CREATIVITY AND INSPIRATION 'FOR TIM COOK

While this departure does not challenge the Apple's ambitious trade agenda in the short term, some question whether the firm will retain its high-tech creative beyond next year without his boss emblem.

In the press release from Apple, the independent director Art Levinson leases on behalf of the Board, "an exceptional leadership and vision" and "innumerable contributions to the success of Apple," and added that Steve Jobs continue to serve society by his "intuition, creativity and inspiration that belong to him."

The statement, which also boasts the exceptional performance of Tim Cook, says nothing about the health of Steve Jobs, who is 56 years old.

His battle against pancreatic cancer has been for years a source of concern for Apple fans, investors and the board of directors, which Steve Jobs now occupy the presidency, a new position for the high tech group.

Until now, Apple would rather have a structure consisting of two independent co-administrators.

Steve Jobs was on sick leave since Jan. 17, Tim Cook taking office on a daily basis.

He spent the day Wednesday meeting with members of the board and management's Cupertino headquarters, and has actively assume his new responsibilities, told Reuters a source close to him.

A second source said that Steve Jobs will remain on the board of Walt Disney.

Some industry experts believe that Steve Jobs made it clear he was no longer able physically to perform a function as demanding as the general direction of a company.

Steve Jobs appeared gaunt when he made a brief appearance in March to unveil the iPad 2.He then made an appearance at a dinner hosted by President Barack Obama for business leaders in Silicon Valley.

"It's really sad"

Tim Cook, a former Compaq aged 50, known for his mastery of the supply chain, has been acting at all three sick leave Steve Jobs.

"Investors are very comfortable with Tim Cook even though Jobs has been a force for innovation and an obvious success of Apple.Tim has shown that Apple could still outperform extremely well when he was interim CEO, "said Shannon Cross, analyst at Cross Research.

For a boss in Silicon Valley told Reuters the letter from Steve Jobs indicated that his condition could be worse than what is known publicly. "It's really sad," he said, wishing to remain anonymous. "No one sees this as a professional issue but a human issue. No one believes that Steve retires because he simply does not want to lead Apple."

In particular, the new sensation in Asia, where many are based suppliers and competitors to Apple. Samsung Electronics, a supplier of chips for Apple but also on its rival smartphones and tablets, has gained 2.4% on the stock market.Sony, Apple defeated by the segment of players, took 2.07%.

Oncologists surveyed who did not participate in medical care given to Steve Jobs, said it was likely many complications of a rare form of pancreatic cancer he had and the liver transplant that followed. They cited a hormonal imbalance or relapse even more difficult to treat the patient is weakened.

The government target of 2% growth for 2011 in France will be difficult to achieve because of poor economic health of the United States said Monday the president of French employers Laurence Parisot.

"It's difficult simply because the United States are not going well, this is one of the main economic engines of the planet. This is something that seems very difficult to achieve," she said of France 2.

The president of MEDEF was speaking after the publication of statistics showing that French growth was zero in the second quarter, which suggests that the figure for the year would be around 1.4% or below , according to economists.

Laurence Parisot, however, wants to be optimistic."Growth is something that is earned every day through work, innovation, boldness, creativity. If we do not show discouragement, we can continue to get these points of growth," she said.

The benefit of General Motors has nearly doubled in the second quarter exceeded market expectations, thanks to an increase in market share, particularly in the United States, the number one U.S. auto.

Net income stood at $ 2.52 billion, $ 1.54 per share, against $ 1.33 billion, $ 0.85 per share, a year earlier.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I / B / E / S had forecast $ 1.20 per share.

Revenues came out up 19% to 39.4 billion, better than the 36.74 billion expected by the consensus.

Swedish bank Swedbank said Thursday an operating profit better than expected second quarter and still expected a gradual improvement in its profit before provisions.

The bank generated an operating profit of 4.32 billion kronor (474 ​​million), nearly double the rate published a year earlier, while analysts polled by Reuters had anticipated 4.10 billion crowns .

Its net banking income has increased for the fourth consecutive quarter to 4.7 billion kroner, beating consensus (4.6 billion).

Swedbank also reiterated a forecast continued recovery in the Baltics, Russia and Ukraine.

The U.S. stock markets ended the week on a negative note as investors considered disappointing figures sanctioning of the ADP survey on employment aroused fears about the growth in the U.S..

The U.S. economy created far fewer jobs than expected in June and the unemployment rate reached 9.2%, its highest level since December, according to official statistics released Friday.

"This is an appalling record of employment, but that would have caused less surprise.The U.S. labor market will more than a few weeks to get rid of the slow growth of the last two quarters, "said Rob Carnell of ING.

The Dow Jones dropped 0.49% Friday, 62.29 points, to 12,657.20, the S & P 500 benchmark index fund managers, has sold 0.70%, 9.42 points, 1343.80 and Nasdaq, heavily weighted technology, lost 0.45%, 12.85 points, to register for 2859.81.

"If the employment figures are disturbing, it's still better to wait for results before the season to panic," said Phil Dow, RBC Wealth Management.

"In our view, profits and sales should be much better than expected, and with the current valuations, go to the market is very attractive."

Alcoa, as usual, will be the first industrial group to publish its results, then followed by JPMorgan, Citigroup and Google.

The Internet giant has also yielded 2.67% Friday to 531.99 dollars, as reacting to the lowering of the recommendation from Morgan Stanley, had to "market weight", citing concerns over margins .

Other values ​​of the day, the group of internet recruitment Monster Worldwide dropped 3.17% to 14.65 dollars following the release of U.S. employment figures.

Same causes, same effects: the trade deficit of France in May broke the record set the previous month, due to higher imports, especially energy, and relative weakness of exports.

The negative balance of trade balance rose to 7.422 billion euros, after 7.174 billion in April, according to figures released Thursday by Customs.

The first five months of the year, the French trade deficit thus came to 33.4 billion, a figure up 60% year on year and is already nearly two-thirds of the annual deficit in 2010 (51.4 billion).

This rapid deepening can be explained by a combination of French weakness in exports and strong imports.

A 34.2 billion euros in May, exports are still unable to find their average level of the year preceding the outbreak of the financial crisis in September 2008, an average of just over 35.4 billion.

"France is among the major industrialized economies (excluding Japan), which recorded the lowest export growth after the trough of the crisis," said Alberto Balboni economist at research firm Xerfi.

Meanwhile, imports are installed at over 41 billion per month, a level higher than before the crisis.This partly explained by the surge in oil prices, which inflates the energy bill of France.

But this structural factor is not sufficient alone to explain the steady decline in the trade balance: it only amplifies the persistent weakness of French industry for export.

"AÉRODÉPENDANCE"

Thus, while the trade deficit in manufacturing has more than doubled in less than a year (4.8 billion in May), the excess of transport equipment was divided by three and that of the food industry has increased by less than 200 million euros.

Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, Pierre Lellouche, this resulted in competition increasingly fierce global in areas such as rail or nuclear.

"For a long time, the weaknesses of foreign trade in France were obscured by the so-called 'major contracts,'" he told reporters Thursday."But customers of yesterday have become the competitors of today."

For its part, Alberto Balboni of Xerfi, highlights the significant decline in aerospace exports (-6.2% over one month) and he sees "some evidence" aérodépendance 'of France, aerospace accounts for more 10% of French exports and any slowdown in performance has a significant effect on the external accounts of the country. "

In May, France has sold its 21 Airbus reported 1.334 million euros against 26 in April to 1.702 million.

The deficit in April had increased partly because of the purchase by Air France-KLM.In the aftermath, hundreds of MPs had called the airline to choose Airbus rather than Boeing for its next big order, expected this fall.

Even if the services are doing probably better than the manufacturing sector, these figures confirm a sharp slowdown in economic growth in the second quarter, said Dominique Barbet, senior economist at BNP Paribas.

"The growth of gross domestic product in the second quarter (+0.3% at best) should be much lower than the first (+0.9%)," he wrote in a research note.

A European bank of six could fail resistance testing, said on Tuesday the euro area sources familiar with the matter.

These results, including the European Central Bank (ECB) that they hope will persuade investors that the EU is finally clear about its banking problems, should encourage those states reluctant to support their banks can not finance themselves .

According to sources interviewed, the EBA (EBA) is expected to announce in the coming weeks between 10 and 15 of the 91 banks that have spent the stress tests have failed.These include Greek banks, German, Portuguese and Spanish.

Last year, seven banks had not validated the previous resistance tests, deemed insufficiently demanding. Thus the Irish banks had they succeeded, just weeks before being rescued from shipwreck by the Irish State.

The 2011 tests sought to determine whether the European institutions had the capital needed to cope with severe economic shocks scenarios with consequences such as loans.They also measured the impact of an impairment of securities held by banks, including those issued by Greece.

European banks must have a capital ratio of "hard" greater than 5% to pass the new tests that simulate the resistance of a recession two years, as part of an operation to reassure taxpayers and improve the image sector.

CREDIBILITY SOUGHT

"How should banks fail? I would say between ten and 15," said a source from the ECB, which developed the test in conjunction with the EBA.

According to another source, EBA hopes that the number of failed approach that level to prove that these tests seriously.However, the number of failed banks should not be higher because the BEA does not want to cause panic in the markets, which could aggravate the budget crisis in Europe.

"To demonstrate that these tests are credible, the EBA will show that the number of failures is significant but not substantial," said a source. "A figure of around ten seems adequate."

A spokesman of the EBA said that the tests were still ongoing and declined to comment on speculation about the results. The results of these tests should be announced on July 13 to coincide with a meeting of finance ministers.

TEST POLICY

These tests also have a political stature.While the ABE and the ECB want to expose the flaws of some banks, national regulators want their side to prevent the occurrence of their banks on the list, because it shows their incompetence in not having themselves discovered these faults.

"All national regulators will fight for none of their banks on the list," said a source. "It is a mark of incompetence."

The EBA, however, try not to concentrate the pressure only on the most fragile countries such as Spain, not to create an aversion to international creditors of these countries and their banks.

"They will avoid bringing out an epicenter," said a source. "If it was Spain, it would be very bad news.Failure of German banks to stress tests would be much less risky. "

First scheduled for late June publication of the results was delayed because some countries, including Germany, had submitted data too optimistic in ABE, which has asked to review their copy.

Pending the official results in the finance ministries of European countries, we are preparing now to take action to support banks that have not passed the tests.

Michelin Group confirmed Tuesday the departure of Didier Miraton, one of three co-managers of Michelin.

The departure of the CEO of technology center of the tire manufacturer, whose term ran until May 2012, comes just weeks after the induction of Jean-Dominique Senard as a future head of Michelin.

"As part of the evolution of governance and management of Michelin, the general partners of the group decided, with the consent of the Supervisory Board, to end the mandate of managing non-commissioned Didier Miraton" , Michelin announced in a press release confirming the information published yesterday by the daily Le Monde.

Didier Miraton receive 1.8 million euros in gross claims about either, after tax and social security, 820.000 euros, an amount equal to the remuneration (fixed and variable) income for the years 2009 and 2010.

The group had so far three co-managers at its head.

Michel Rollier, who had succeeded Edouard Michelin after the death of the latter in 2006, is the sole general partner is liable to say on his personal property for the debts of Michelin in case of failure.Eight months after taking the helm of the company, he wanted a more collegial operation by appointing Jean-Dominique Senard Didier Miraton co-managers and non-sponsored.

Didier Miraton, 53, had joined the company in 1982.

Around 17:00, the title Michelin rose 2.2% to 64.71 euros, bringing its increase to over 20% since January, while the CAC 40 advanced 1.9%.

The Paris Bourse opened on a hesitant note Monday after a tough week, fears about global economic health and financial situation of Greece continued to weigh on the market.

At 9:10, the CAC 40 index yielded 0.07% to 3802.42 points after losing 2.2% last week and closed twice in a major technical support points located at 3850-60.

As for values, Peugeot wins 1.78% to 27.95 euros thus registering the largest increase in the CAC 40, supported by a recommendation to increase the purchase of Citigroup.

Other major European markets are also hesitant in early trade, London clinching 0.01% while Frankfurt was down 0.1%.Of the European indices, the EuroStoxx 50 and yields 0.18% Eurofirst 300 is perfectly stable (0.00%).

The euro was steady against the greenback at 1.4329 dollars (0.01%).

A barrel of U.S. light crude fell by 0.43%, to 98.86 dollars.

European values ​​have ended on an uncertain note, investors are hesitating between the numbers of monthly U.S. employment appeared far below expectations and the published items for a rescue of Greece.

The CAC 40 index, which ended on a note stable (+0.02%) to 3,890.68 points, losing 1.53% on the week.

Other major European markets ended slightly higher: London and Frankfurt gained 0.12% 0.49%. The pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 index has meanwhile sold 0.40%.

Nokia ended down 4.92% to 4.48 euros, continuing its slide after profit warning at the beginning of the week.

Fiat, however, won 3.59% to 7.3550 euros.The U.S. Treasury Department announced the sale of its remaining 6% in the Italian carmaker Chrysler, which thus becomes the majority.