Despite the strains imposed by Greece on the euro area, Italy was able to borrow Monday medium and long term 5.25 billion euros expected without any increase in interest rates. Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti presented in Rome on 4 December 2011 a new austerity plan of 20 billion euros by 2014
Italy has a bond issue passed Monday by taking test 5.25 billion euros in the medium and long term interest rates steady at almost three years, despite strong investor concerns for the euro area due to blockage policy in Greece.
The total demand of investors amounted to 9 billion euros, allowing the Treasury, which were up between 3.5 and 5.25 billion euros, reaching its maximum target, announced the Bank of Italy . As part of its main issue, the Italian Treasury has raised 3.5 billion of securities maturing in 2015 at a rate of 3.91% against 3.89% in the last similar operation on April 12. He also issued 542 million of securities due 2020 at a rate of 5.33%, 651 million of securities due 2022 at a rate of 5.66% and € 557 million of securities due 2025 at a rate of 5.90%.
The Bank of Italy does not compare the rates of these bonds with those recorded during previous shows. "The show went well overall," said Elia Lattuga, bond strategist in the bank UniCredit. "The maximum was reached," a "particularly good result" that the market was marked "by difficulties this morning," added Chiara Manenti Intesa Sanpaolo.
The political stalemate in Greece, which still has no government more than a week after the parliamentary elections, has plunged European stock markets Monday and caused a fever in the bond market.
Despite the success of this program by Rome, the Italian market also remained very tense. Secondary market, where exchange debt already issued, the rates in Italy were part of ten years at 5.724% to 5.495% cons 10:25 GMT Friday night while the Milan Stock Exchange 2.90% let go.
Friday, Italy, which faced since mid-April to a sharp rebound in rates after a strong expansion in the first quarter, recorded a great success on the debt market by placing 10 billion shares to three months and one year at declining rates.
Royal Bank of Scotland has said Friday on the road to recovery after an operating profit better than expected first quarter and a sharp reduction of its balance sheet.
The CEO Stephen Hester also confirmed that the bank would have ended next week to repay emergency loans granted by London during the financial crisis.
It also will resume payment of dividends and coupons attached to hybrid securities.
RBS posted a first quarter operating profit of 1.2 billion pounds (1.46 billion euros), after a loss of 144 million the previous quarter. The consensus gave a profit of 800 million.
London has an 82% interest in the bank bailout since the surgery in 2008 and has "no desire" to sell given the situation of stock markets, reported the group.
"As far as I know, there is no desire to sell at current prices and I think it is quite understandable," said Stephen Hester at a conference tee ; léphonique. "Even if everyone wants it to be done, to my knowledge there is nothing in sight."
Sources had said in March that the government had held talks with Abu Dhabi, which had fueled speculation of a sale.
"MISTAKES OF THE PAST"
The rise of the bank in the green is due in particular to the investment bank, which posted an operating profit of 824 million pounds during the quarter against a loss of 109 million the previous three months.
"We are pleased with progress made in the first quarter, although the economic and regulatory environment remains tough," said Stephen Hester. "RBS continues to significantly grow in strength and resistance."
Hester added that the bank was progressing very well in the correction of "errors" of the past, with a decrease in non-strategic assets and increased liquidity.
She said her "Funded balance sheet", defined as total assets less the balance sheet derivatives, was further reduced by 27 billion pounds to 950 billion. Of this total, the non-strategic assets decreased from 11 to 83 billion pounds.
"Once again, the good news is the progress speed of adjustment of the balance sheet. It's all about cleaning up the balance (…)", said Ian Graham, an analyst at Investec. "For me, progress is obviously there but the road is long and painful."
Around 9:25 GMT, RBS shares gained 2.4% to 25.14 pence in morning, outperforming the European sector index of banks, up 0.22%.
The amount borrowed by the Portuguese banks to the European Central Bank increased by 18% in March compared to February to reach a record $ 56.3 billion, said Monday Lusitanian central bank.
This amount far exceeds the previous record of 49.1 billion borrowed in a month reached in August 2010, before Lisbon accepts a plan to help the IMF and the European Uni ; enemies.
According to Teresa Gil Pinheiro, chief economist at Banco BPI, the increase recorded in March was partly explained by the strong participation of Portuguese banks for refinancing proposed by the European Central Bank.
In December and February, she put on the market a total of over 1,000 billion euros.
This strong growth also reflects the reluctance of banks in the euro area, who are reluctant to lend to each other.
UniCredit has emerged in the last quarter of 2011 a profit of 114 million euros, returning to profitability after intensive cleaning of its balance sheet which resulted in a loss of 10.6 billion euros the previous three months.
Over the whole of 2011, the bank shows a loss of 9.2 billion euros, a result of massive writedowns in the third quarter, primarily goodwill.
Italy's largest bank by assets had already passed the annual dividend.
Earnings in the fourth quarter, beating consensus giving 30 million, compares with a profit of 321 million euros a year earlier.
The ratio of Tier 1 capital was hard to 9.97% on a proforma basis, taking into account a difficult capital increase of EUR 7.5 billion performed in January 2012.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange ended almost unchanged Monday after slight correction suffered last week, investors focusing on actions related to metals and blue chips that have underperformed ; the market lately.
The Nikkei gained 0.07% or 6.77 points, to 10,018.24. In contrast, the Topix broader, yielded 0.71 points (-0.08%) to 851.82.
This evolution of the Nikkei, helped by the decline of the yen against the dollar, was recorded in a few exchanges expanded.
"Even if the Nikkei falls below 10,000 points, Japanese institutional investors are not going to take profits because they have more net sellers in the rally (in recent months)," said Kenichi Hirano , a director at Tachibana Securities.
Technical analysts believe that the decline of last week could lead investors who missed the bull cycle in action since the beginning of the year to enter the market.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange was down 1.1% Friday, accusing its largest percentage decline in two months. But it is still up over 18% since the beginning of the year.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve in the United States are no longer quite as strategic as before.
While President Barack Obama put on a new release of emergency stocks of the country to counter soaring fuel prices, experts note that the landscape changes logistical striking U.S. oil could complicate his plans.
Certainly, the fact tap into the four giant salt caverns on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico – which contain 700 million barrels of crude oil owned by the U.S. federal government – would almost certainly lower the world oil prices, easing to pump users and providing a boost to Barack Obama before the November election.
Thursday, the price of crude has lost up to three dollars after information from Reuters that Britain was considering with the U.S. release of strategic oil reserves cal in the course of the year.
British officials have said that the timing and volumes contemplated are detailed by the summer, when oil prices often reach a peak.
But the logistics of such a release of crude oil to refiners volunteers is more complicated than ever: if there is little doubt that oil reserves are provided in emergency Ultimately buyers, it may reach them more slowly than does the government hope.
The inversion of a key pipeline linking Texas to Oklahoma will reduce the capacity of the main cavern release of oil reserves, and John is Shages, responsible ; emergency stocks under the Bush and Clinton administrations.
SYSTEM OF ANOTHER TIME
The development of shale oil and crude oil imports from Canada's oil sands has transformed the landscape of Energy. The industry is now trying to move an overflow of oil from the center of the country to the Gulf of Mexico, reversing the logic that underpinned the organization of national strategic reserves .
Emergency reserves of the United States, created by Congress after the oil crisis in mid 1970, was in fact designed primarily to carry oil pipeline linking the Gulf to refineries in the region and other purchasers located further north.
"The fact that the pipelines go (now) to the south, not north is a major change," said Edward Morse, responsible for research on raw materials for Citigroup and formerly an expert e nergétique within the U.S. State Department.
According to the Department of Energy, the U.S. strategic reserves may distribute the oil to 49 refineries with a capacity of more than five million barrels per day (bpd) – about one third of the total capacity of the country.
They are designed to release the oil within two weeks after order and to support a rate of one million bpd for a year and a half, helping to meet 5% of U.S. demand.
It can now free up oil at a maximum rate of 4.25 million bpd, due to damage to one of the storage tanks, said an official of the dice Department of Energy.
But oil industry analysts are skeptical.
Edward Morse deems it unrealistic pace and stresses that have limited logistical problems last summer the flexibility of the government's release of 30 million bpd – the largest in history United States – in response to disturbances affecting the supply of Libyan oil.
The oil from strategic reserves while in competition with the already crude transported by pipelines or tankers, on waterways often overloaded, the logistical capabilities of the country could be insufficient to rapidly absorb millions of additional barrels.
The Energy Department had released an average 743,000 bpd in August.
The Federal Reserve estimates that the U.S. economy grew at a moderate pace from January to mid February, the hiring is being légé ; LY accelerated in many parts of the United States.
In the beige book of the U.S. central bank, released Wednesday, the Fed also notes some improvements in the property sector although, overall, the tone is as careful as in the pre ; cédente edition of this document.
"The conditions in the housing market have improved somewhat in most districts," we read in the paper.
Manufacturing is one who is doing best, with most of the 12 Fed districts with a rise in new orders.
Prime Minister Lucas Papademos called on Sunday for three party leaders Greek government to publicly commit to implement the reforms demanded by the country's creditors in return for a second help.
The three party leaders were summoned Greek government on Sunday by Lucas Papademos to overcome their objections to the new austerity measures demanded by creditors, even if they have so far resulted only exacerbate the recession of countries.
George Papandreou, Antonis Samaras and George Karatzaferis – respectively leaders of the Socialist party, New Democracy (right) and Laos (far right) represented in the Greek coalition government – arrived mid-afternoon Maximos the palace, where the offices of the Prime Minister.
The representatives of the troika of institutional creditors of the country (euro area, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund) have previously met the Prime Minister, Finance Minister and the Minister of Labour. The Greek government has been negotiating for weeks on the establishment of a structural adjustment program of the country in exchange for a second loan of at least 130 billion euros, which would add to that 110 billion awarded in May 2010 the country to protect it from bankruptcy.
100 billion euros of debt
Negotiations described as "superhuman" Sunday by a senior government official, intended to prevent Greece a default in the month of March. An alternative trading-just as crucial-government with its private creditors to erase 100 billion euros of debt, depends on negotiating with creditors. Among the hard spots, rejected both by the Greek trade union leaders by most politicians, are the demands of the troika of generalized lowering labor costs.
"I come with the hope that I will not repeat what was said recently the former German Chancellor (Helmut) Schmidt," said George Karatzaferis to the press on arrival at the Prime Minister, after warning that it did not feel ready to bow to pressure from Berlin or "blackmail". In December, Helmut Schmidt had expressed concern about how other countries dealt Berlin and European partners in managing the debt crisis, when Germany imposes its solutions to its neighbors.
Saturday night, the Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said the negotiations "on the razor's edge" were to conclude Sunday evening that Greece avoided a default in March
Risk of bankruptcy in March
The leader of the Eurogroup, Luxembourg Jean-Claude Juncker, has also lobbied on Saturday night by evoking the risk of "bankruptcy" of Greece in March if the reforms demanded were not completed.
"If we were to find that everything goes awry in Greece, then there would be no new program" refinancing of the country, said the head of government of Luxembourg. "This would mean bankruptcy in March," he added. "Greece must know that we will not back down on the issue of privatization," he said, regretting that there is no other "elements of corruption at all levels of government" Greek.
The opponents argue that wage cuts will exacerbate the recession in Greece, where the economy is stifled by a recession that puts on airs of depression, with GDP expected to fall by around 6% in 2011 after two years of austerity.
According to a government study released last week, the unit labor costs in Greece has already fallen by 14.3% between the first quarter 2010 and third quarter 2011.
But according to the head of IMF mission in Greece Poul Thomsen, measures of wage compression in the private sector will boost the economy through a gain in competitiveness. Paul Thomsen has advocated such a reduction in the minimum wage, a red rag to the unions, saying only 751 euros gross per month was 35% higher than in Portugal, and 20% in Spain.
The Maritime Alps, Savoie, Haute-Savoie, the Vendee, the Channel, the Rhone, the Haut-Rhin, Bas-Rhin, the Gold Coast, the Marne and Haute-Marne are willing to experiment with the requirement of 7 hours per week for the RSA Beneficiaries. According to Nicolas Sarkozy, it is their "restore dignity". Nicolas Sarkozy and Roselyne Bachelot visiting Bordeaux November 15, 2011
Solidarity Minister Roselyne Bachelot on Wednesday presented the new contracts for seven hours to eleven recipients of RSA representatives of councils willing to experiment with this device, it was learned from the department. Departments candidates to experiment with these contracts, reserved to the people furthest from the labor market, are the Maritime Alps, Savoie, Haute-Savoie, the Vendee, the Channel, the Rhone, the Upper Rhine, the Lower Rhine, the Gold Coast, the Marne and Haute-Marne.Tuesday in Bordeaux, President Nicolas Sarkozy said that the contracts were intended to "restore dignity" to the beneficiaries of RSA.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange ended slightly higher Friday, recovering from the fall of the day in favor of positions suggesting investors anticipate the possibility of a rebound despite the persistence of the debt crisis in Europe
The Nikkei gained 0.16% or 13.67 points to 8,514.47 while the Topix, larger yielded 1.17 points (-0.16%) to 729.13.
On the whole a week marked by a deepening debt crisis with the record level by the Italian sovereign bond yield, the two indices lost 3.3% and 3%.
Title Olympus finished down 4.96% to 460 yen after a volatile session.
