International News

Read Online

Archive for the ‘international’ Category

Prudence, caution always. While the Asian stock markets declined sharply on Monday morning, the financial markets in Paris should continue in the red on Monday. The macroeconomic environment remains uncertain especially overseas. Chinese Premier nonetheless sought to reassure investors on the country's economic growth. "Everything goes as planned," he said Monday.

Until the release of stress tests on European banks on Friday, the week will be especially marked by the rise of the results announcements in Europe and the United States. On the macroeconomic front, the day will be rather quiet.Only the ECB will publish its figures on the balance of payments of the euro area to 10 hours.

On the currency markets, the euro resists and remains above the $ 1.29 mark Monday morning (0.09%).

Values follow

On Monday, pre-market, Eurotunnel must publish its first half results. Then this afternoon it was the turn of Edenred, two weeks after its IPO, Guyenne et Gascogne, HF Audika Company and to disclose their turnover in the second quarter. Soitec publish its turnover in the first quarter.

GDF Suez is preparing a cash offer of 6.4 billion pounds (7.6 billion euros) on the British electricity group International Power, confirming a report in The Mail on Sunday.In previous discussions about a reconciliation between the two groups had lasted several months before a halt in January, the newspaper said free instant credit score.

BMB Group, an investment company in Brunei, has denied information from the Sunday Times that she had planned to bid for Club Med 800 million euros. BMB Group, which manages funds for the family of the Sultan of Brunei, have the support of three of the four major shareholders of Club Med, according to British newspaper, citing unidentified sources close to the situation.

At the Salon of Farnborough (South London) that opens Monday until July 25, EADS should reassert its confidence in its chances of winning U.S. tanker contract for Boeing cons.The parent company of Airbus is ready to strengthen the United States for eight billion dollars.

ADP announced that its passenger traffic rose 2.3% in June over a year. In the first six months of the year, traffic appears down 2.1%.

National Australia Bank (NAB) on Monday agreed with its Asian subsidiary Axa and Axa Asia Pacific (AAP) to extend until Aug. 31 offer of 11.5 billion dollars on NAB PAA.

Finally, less than one week of the release of stress tests, investors will also be observing the conduct of banks that have suffered more than last week, Societe Generale has lost more than 5%, BNP Paribas dropped nearly 6% and Credit Agricole has dropped about 3.5% in a market which posted a decline of just under 2% in one week.

Financial regulation in the United States is running. The most comprehensive reform in this area since the 1930s has been passed by the U.S. Senate by 60 votes against 39. A key legislative victory for Barack Obama after the reform of health coverage in March.The U.S. president did not hesitate to declare last May: "Wall Street has failed," referring to lobbyists who tried to prevent the adoption of this project.

Pending the promulgation by the President

Obama can now enact this historic piece to prevent another financial crisis and economic such as the United States had known in autumn 2008.

"Today the Senate will take action and send the bill on the president's office, so that the country can finally feel the effects of reform on which we have discussed for so many months," said Thursday Senator Chris Dodd, one of the main authors of the text with the Representative Barney Frank.

The text of over 2300 pages of the law "Frank-Dodd", aims to extend regulatory control over whole sectors of finance, which escaped him.It thus provides for the creation of a consumer of financial products within the central bank and it prevents the rescue of large financial institutions at taxpayers' expense.

For regulators play now

Among other measures leading text include a provision for better control of the vast market of derivatives traded over the counter, these tools have been speculative in the heart of the recent financial crisis in the U.S. pay day loans.The text finally contains a measure dubbed the "rule of Volcker," the name of Barack Obama's economic adviser, Paul Volcker, whose idea is to encourage commercial banks to focus on their lending activities and take fewer risks .

While most Democrats have supported this project, the Republicans have signaled their opposition to the text, notably in that it gives too much power to regulators who failed to prevent the recent financial crisis.

The Chairman of the Central Bank of the United States, Ben Bernanke on Thursday hailed an "important step" with the vote by the Senate of legislation to reform financial regulation, which gives them considerable powers of oversight at the institution.

The ball is now in the hands of regulators. "We will pay with meticulous application and our responsibilities under the new law," promises Ben Bernanke.Legislation passed by the Senate because the Fed responsible for regulating all major financial institutions in the country, more than 50 billion dollars in assets.

ALSO READ:

"Obama gets his financial reform

"Obama:" Wall Street has failed "

A little over a week after its expiration, the license of Google in China has been renewed, said Friday the U.S. Internet giant. "We are delighted to have received the annual renewal of the license and can continue to provide products and services to our users," said David Drummond, the official blog of the group.

The renewed the license comes after a period of uncertainty and a long standoff with the Chinese government, Google is saying exceeded by China's censorship and cyber attacks come from this country.David Drummond, vice president of Google, announced on June 29 last, one day before the expiration of the license for Google in China, as if the license was not renewed, he "cut off all contact with China .

In March, Google had decided not to censor its Chinese site and transfer it to Hong Kong.But last week, Google announced a new "approach" in China, changing its system to stop censoring its search engine, in an effort to meet the demands of Chinese authorities.

China: more than 400 million Internet

Currently, all Internet users in mainland China are headed on a new page of google.cn, a website in China which now has links with the Hong Kong site.

"It was obvious that we should stop to reroute" automatically on the website of Hong Kong, said Google CEO Eric Schmidt was quoted Friday by the Financial Times, before the announcement of the renewal of the operating license in China .

With the renewal of its license, Google will be able to continue to operate on the largest Internet market in the world.China is the largest Internet market in the world with over 400 million users, according to official figures.

ALSO READ:

"Google, partially censored by China

A year after its introduction, the majority and the government seem divided on VAT at 5.5% in restaurants. To reduce the government deficit, Budget Minister Francois Baroin, this plane would "very, very large niche for tax, estimated at 3 billion euros Bercy. Its minister, Christine Lagarde, has cropped Tuesday morning: the reduced rate of VAT "is legitimate on the merits.

But the revolt against the old promise of Jacques Chirac, applied from 1 July 2009 thanks to the activism of Nicolas Sarkozy, also scolded the Assembly. Without naming the VAT on food, the general rapporteur for the Budget, Gilles Carrez (UMP), has questioned "a number of consumer items that are 5.5% and that should not be at 5.5 %. He advocates instead an intermediate rate to 12%.

Since the introduction of the measure for the restoration, the context is not the same.The government, which has hitherto led a recovery policy, had to change tack in recent months under pressure from the markets. It is now to reduce the deficit. Especially in the planing tax loopholes.

Nevertheless, the statements and Gilles Carrez Baroin were poorly received by restaurants. "It's absolutely outrageous to say that the 5.5% VAT tax is a niche!" Reacts Philippe Villalon, president of the National Federation of the restoration (FNRF). "We buy our products and we sell 5,5% to 5.5%. As is the case for all areas of the mouth.Moreover, if we repeat the policies they want to end VAT at 5.5%, we should not translate that we lower our prices, nor that we hired, as the state would break its part of contract. "

During the implementation of the measure, the restorers had promised to lower prices, to invest and hire. These commitments, which would take over in case of cancellation of VAT at 5.5%, would have been more or less respected. The Court of Auditors estimated last October that the measure would involve only 6,000 new jobs. The profession claims to the contrary today promised 21,700 against 20,000 a year.

Decisive day for the mobilization against the pension reform. The objective of unions is clear: to gather more demonstrators than previous events, which led to another since the beginning of the year. On 27 May, between 395,000 and one million people (according to the police and unions respectively) took to the streets.

Since then, times have changed. The government has announced plans for pension reform last week. A text that unions have unanimously considered "unfair." Guests this Thursday on RTL, the secretary general of the CFDT, Francois Chérèque, regretted "being faced with a country that is willing to change, but change in the wrong direction." Therefore, he hopes an "exceptional mobilization" for this inter-action day.

"The hope was to surpass the one million demonstrators.I think that this figure will be exceeded is obvious, "said François Chérèque, saying that" perhaps two million people "will demonstrate this Thursday. And this, especially since "more than 200 gatherings" are already planned across France. And calls for strikes in the business (as in Saint-Gobain, Michelin, Total, Airbus, BNP Paribas, L'Oreal, France Telecom, La Poste …) have followed since the beginning of the week.

At the Post, some 19.86% of staff were on strike Thursday morning, said the Directorate in a statement against 12.80% last May 27. For its part, the direction of the station has recorded 39.8% of strikers among the railway workers in mid-morning, against 23.2% during the last day of action interprofessional.

The teachers were 31.9% to strike Thursday in schools and 10.3% in secondary schools (including 18.7% in colleges), according to figures from the Ministry of Education published in mid-morning. The schools were little affected, the degree requires organization. On the day of 23 March, the mobilization in the primary had reached 29.8% of strikers, the ministry said.

Another sector to have mobilized public broadcasting had a strong participation in the strike on Thursday. Several television and radio have been deleted throughout the morning. The directions of France Televisions and Radio France, however, had not reported figures to the mid-day. Finally, the publication of several regional newspapers has been disrupted. To major national newspapers will not seem morrow Fridays.

For the secretary general of the CGT, Bernard Thibault, the one million demonstrators should be passed this afternoon. "If that's not enough, we have the sequence of ideas, this is not the end of a cycle, only the announcement of a bill," he warned in a interview with the newspaper 20 Minutes. "I've seen governments fall as safe as this one, particularly on the subject of pensions, has finally found the union leader.

If Nicolas Sarkozy pledged on Tuesday to be "tuned" during discussions with the unions this summer, and it spoke of "possible developments" of the reform bill late last week, some key points text does not change as raising the legal age to 62 years in 2018. And, whatever the mobilization this Thursday."The mobilization will certainly strong, we expect, we do not fear," warned the Labour Minister, Eric Woerth.

ALSO READ

"Pensions strong mobilization provided by the unions

"Pensions: the" developments "possible by September

François Chérèque: "This reform is a provocation"

"SPECIAL CASE – Retirement: The Challenge of Reform

Posted by admin under business, economy, international, opinions, people

The rating agencies do not trust Japan. "Without a strong fiscal consolidation plan and credible by the Government of Japan notes will be threatened with demotion to the long term," he said Monday in Tokyo Andrew Colquhoun, director of public debt ratings for Asia-Pacific .

The warning is not innocent. It was made just hours before Prime Minister of Japan, Naoto Kan, announces an increase in the consumption tax, now one of the world's lowest, 5%, designed to rebalance country's finances, would not the day "before two or three years" paydayloans.

In the eyes of Fitch, Tokyo is obviously not fast enough, while the country's debt reaches 201% of its gross domestic product (GDP).

Between the French listed companies and U.S. investors, the reports are looking good. Despite the crisis, Paris remains the third preferred destination after Great Britain and Germany. But this affinity could become even more intensity, if we believe a research firm Financial Dynamics on the attractiveness of companies listed on the Paris Stock Exchange with 30 institutional investors on Wall Street. Europe weighs only 13.8% of their portfolio and the size of France went a small 1.6%, which suggests the study, could grow if the managements of French companies were showing "greater transparency and if the publications were more accurate results and frequent. All these qualities, however, already claimed by large listed companies. Yet Americans remain unsatisfied.While 62% feel well informed about investment opportunities, 38% complain that they do not quite grasp the subtleties of the governance and regulation at the French. This does not prevent them from playing for high: 39% of respondents prefer large-cap, over 10 billion euros. And 23% opt for those between 5 and 9.99 billion euros.

To choose between two companies in the euro area, 53% of investors focus first on to dissect the "fundamentals", only 16% consider the prospects for growth as critical. Which is good in this day and age.

This is not a surprise but the time is more than ever in a pinch. Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy will meet on Monday to prepare the European Council by the end of the week and the G20 Toronto. Discussions will focus obviously on public deficits in the euro area, including sanctions to apply against the states that are lax or new ways of coordination of economic policies. Originally scheduled on June 7 last, the interview was postponed, allowing the two leaders unveiled their own plans for savings.

French plan considered "practicable"

The plan submitted by Paris this weekend, is considered "feasible" by the Governor of the Bank of France, Christian Noyer.This has indeed said Sunday he is "perfectly possible" for France to bring its public deficit to 3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2013 as foreseen in the government aims to reduce the public deficit (government, corporate accounts, local communities), 100 billion. To do this, the Governor of the Bank of France has called for "priority measures to reduce expenses."

Effort on the sources of expenditure

And that's the government's target. The Budget Minister Francois Baroin said Sunday that the objective will be achieved by making "a major effort on all sources of expenditure, the state plans to cut public spending by 45 billion euros. The Minister added that this effort on ITélé would "not less" than in Germany.In Germany, the government wants to save 80 billion by 2014, thanks to budget cuts in military spending and social.

The question remains what the market reaction. For now, a report published Sunday by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) says that the bailout of the European Union has not defused the fears of the markets. The institutions in Basel has also reaffirmed that the French and German banks are particularly exposed to the debts of Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain with a respective total of 493 billion and 465 billion dollars.

During the past several months, discussions on financial reform should be completed June 26 The Senate and House of Representatives have each passed a different version of the text. Elected officials from each chamber are now trying to work on a common version. Congress hopes to be ready for the G20, to be held on 26 and 27 June in Toronto, where regulation of the financial sector will be a central theme. The final text could be adopted just before the recess of parliament in early July. It will then be submitted to President Barack Obama for enactment.

Proposals expected in Europe in a few weeks

A desire to succeed which is felt also in Europe.On Wednesday, the President of the Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, have co-signed a letter to José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, urging the agency to "accelerate its work" on "enhanced supervision" of financial markets. They attract attention of the European Commission on the issue of regulation of swaps and CDS. The naked short selling could be banned in the entire European Union.The two leaders also stressed the need for greater transparency in the global markets, that there trading stocks or bonds, sovereign bonds according to their benefit as soon as attention particular.

Proposals of measures could be presented in a few weeks.

A "circuit breaker" on Monday in the U.S.

In the U.S., initial development of markets will be set up incessantly. In its effort regulation of the financial sphere, the system of "circuit breaker" required by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could indeed come into force next Monday. It provides for a suspension of trade in a way which would fluctuate more than 10% in less than five minutes on the market.With this rule, the Constable of financial markets hoping to avoid the stock market panic like that of May 6.

The SEC is considering extending these fuses, which concern the companies currently listed in the Standard Poor's 500, over a thousand companies.

While the Tokyo Stock Exchange is closed until Wednesday included due to public holidays in Japan, the Asian markets all move in the red on Monday.

Hong Kong drops 1.36% to 20,821.20 points, 0.91% cedes Taiwan to 7391.74 points, Seoul lost 1.22%, 0.58% in Sydney coward 4779.50 points, fell by Bombay 0 53% to 17,464.90 points and Singapore shows a decrease of 0.98% to 2945.34 points.

Despite the activation of a massive bailout of Greece announced on Sunday by finance ministers of the euro area, markets do not regain confidence. They are worried about further increases in reserve requirements of banks in China, 50 basis points. Banks will therefore retain 14-17% of their loans in chests. This measure, which takes effect next May 10, is supposed to limit loans to individuals and businesses to avoid the overheating of the Chinese economy.This is the third increase since the beginning of the year.

The banking and real estate values at half

Consequently, the evolving Chinese banking stocks down sharply, on Monday, including Bank of China, which fell by 1.72%. Regarding property values, China Resources fell 4.97%, Shimao Property Holdings sells 2.47% Agile Property Holdings or drops 2.17%.

A barrel of oil above $ 86

Crude prices were up Monday in Asia after the announcement of the plan of aid to Greece and because of a probable decline in U.S. production in the wake of the oil spill in the United States.

In morning trading, a barrel of light sweet crude for June delivery took 16 cents to 86.31 dollars, while Brent North Sea with identical maturity, gained 13 cents to 87.57 dollars.