The European Commission (EC) and European Central Bank (ECB) working on a contingency plan in case Greece should leave the eurozone, said EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht, in an interview published Friday.
This is the first statement by a senior European official confirming the existence of such plans.
Speculation about the development and content of such projects are fed from the Greek elections of May 6, but their existence had not previously confirmed e.
"There is one and a half, the risk of domino effect could have existed," said Karel De Gucht Belgian Flemish daily De Standaard.
"But today there are, both within the European Central Bank and European Commission services working in emergency scenarios where the Gre it can not. "
E.ON, the first group of German utilities, announced Wednesday a quarterly sales better than expected, the good performance of trading and renewable energy production offset declines production related to the abandonment of nuclear power in Germany.
The group recorded a 28% increase in sales to 35.7 billion euros, higher than the 30.14 billion euros predicted by Thomson Reuters SmartEstimates.
The group said last week it had earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of approximately 3.8 billion euros, and net current of about 1.7 billion.
"These figures are not spectacular, but they are good," said one trader. The action was reported up 0.9% in transactions before trading.
The turnover of the trading subsidiary of the group rose 37% to 27.5 billion euros while the production of renewable energy generated sales up 7% to 617 million.
Since the beginning of the year, as E.ON has lost over 6%, impacted partly by its heavy exposure to nuclear power, while its main competitor RWE gained 18%.
The industrial orders rebounded in February in the United States and businesses have increased their orders for capital goods, leaving the industry think that retains some vitality despite signs of slower growth.
These orders rose 1.3%, slightly below the consensus of analysts polled by Reuters which gave 1.5%, according to figures released Tuesday by the Commerce Department.
Many economists believe that the expiration of certain tax benefits on productive investment in late 2011 has encouraged companies to move their investments.
The decline in January was revised to 1.1% against 1% in the first estimate.
Orders for civilian capital goods excluding aircraft, a category closely followed because it was considered a good indicator of future investment plans, rose 1.7% in February against 1.2% in the first estimate.
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.
If the benefits of U.S. distributors to appear this week are as unimpressive as the results published so far companies, keeping Wall Street at the height of nine months will probably be difficult to justify.
Specialists believe that stock market investing in the U.S. market may resist a further increase, even with an agreement in the Greek case Monday and indicators confirming that the recovery is underway to United States.
Trading will resume on Tuesday, the markets are closed Monday for President's Day.
For the year 2012 was less than two months and the benchmark fund managers, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up over 8%. It is already higher than what many analysts were predicting the end of the year.
The index ended Friday at 1,361 points, its highest level since May 2011. In December, analysts polled by Reuters estimated that the index would end from 2012 to 1340 points.
If the index passed beyond 1370, it would be at its highest since June 2008, to its level before the collapse of Lehman Brothers, which took place in September 2008.
As for Dow Jones, he approaches the psychological level of 13,000 points and the Nasdaq Composite, that of 3000 points.
OPPORTUNITY TO PURCHASE
At the NYSE, 85% to 90% of the shares are treated above their 50-day moving average, said Bruce Zaro at Delta Global Asset Management in Boston. This is normally a sign that the market is overbought.
Bruce Zaro does not exclude a decrease of the S & P in the region of 1260-1270 in the short term.
Some experts, however, a passage above 1370 would be a buying opportunity.
"I'm kind of on the sidelines waiting to see it, but I'm down from there if it snaps," said Stephen Massocca, at Wedbush Morgan in San Francisco.
The percentage of companies that have published better than expected quarterly results is 64%, according to Thomson Reuters data, 404 companies have already published their accounts . This percentage has certainly improved since the beginning of the period of publication of accounts, but it is lower than 70% the last four quarters.
Among the major retailers will announce their quarterly profits this week include Wal-Mart and Home Depot.
Apart from the results and the Greek case, which should find a solution Monday, few indicators will be published this week: home sales new and old, consumer confidence according to the University of Michigan and registrations Weekly jobless.
To be continued as the general assembly of Apple Thursday and accounts of the first fiscal quarter of Hewkett-Packard on Wednesday.
The CBOE volatility index, also called fear index, fell 7.5% Friday, to 17.78. It is below the level of 25 for over two months, suggesting that investors are less worried about stock market prospects.
The U.S. trade deficit widened slightly more than expected in December, the acceleration of growth with increased imports to their highest level in three and a half years.
The figures released Friday by the Commerce Department also show that the trade deficit with China set a new record over the entire 2011 to 295,500,000,000 dollars (224 billion euros) , a figure that could stimulate discussion often strained between Washington and Beijing within days of a high-level meeting between the two countries.
The monthly trade deficit stood at $ 48.8 billion in December, as imports reached their highest level since July 2008, just before the financial crisis do fall world trade.
Analysts polled by Reuters had expected an average monthly figure of 48.0 billion. The November deficit was revised to $ 47.1 billion against 47.75 billion originally announced.
U.S. exports rose slightly in December (0.7%), but nearly two times less than imports (+1.3%).
For Omer Esiner, strategist at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange in Washington, the slow growth of exports in December could be due to "a fairly soft global demand," a bleak trend.
"Continuous improvement of economic growth here (United States) will result in an increase in imports. But a slowdown in the exports would be a concern: they played a big role in the improvement seen last year, "he says …….
.. The dollar was up against the euro Friday as investors attaching greater importance to the evolution of the debt crisis in the area euro as U.S. data
. CHINA, SENSITIVE PARTNER
Over the whole of 2011, the trade deficit the U.S. has increased from 11.6% to 558.0 billion, a level not seen since 2008 …….
.. Exports rose 14.5%, exceeding for the first time the threshold of 2.100 billion, a growth that leaves the U.S. economy ; Rican on track to achieve the goal set by President Barack Obama, namely a doubling of exports in five years.
Meanwhile, U.S. imports recorded an increase of 13.8%, to nearly 2700 billion. Foreign car purchases included at their highest level since 2007 and oil imports its highest since 2008.
The average price of imported oil has registered a record high in 2011 to 99.78 dollars a barrel.
Unprecedented deficit with China is expected to fuel the concern expressed by Congress against the policy of the People's Republic, regularly accused maintaining the undervaluation of the currency to help its exporters.
Especially since Barack Obama is scheduled to meet next week the Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, considered a future issue of the regime.
U.S. exports to China jumped 13.1% last year to $ 103.9 billion while imports reached 399.3 billion (+9.4%).
China has published its side Friday figures showing a reduction in its current account deficit in 2011, which provide an additional argument to support it seeks to reduce its dependence on external demand.
However, a sharp decline in imports in January coupled with a decline slowed exports resulted in the largest trade surplus for six months.
Trade deficits of the United States with the European Union and Canada have also increased in 2011 to 99.2 billion and 35.6 billion respectively.
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.
Faurecia announced Friday the successful refinancing for a $ 1.5 billion, the group has launched Monday.
These operations include a bond due in December 2016, for $ 350 million with a coupon of 9.375%, said the automotive supplier in a statement.
The refinancing of Faurecia also involves a new syndicated loan of 1,150 million, consisting of two bands A (690 million euros) and B (460 million), respectively of maturity in November 2014 and November 2016.
These two operations will allow us to prepay a loan of 250 million euros made by Peugeot in conjunction with the refinancing of the existing syndicated bank also said Faurecia.
The European Union has every confidence in Greece with regard to compliance with its commitments made at the EU summit last week, when a new aid package of € 130 billion was reached, said Tuesday the two main leaders of the euro area.
"We note the intention of the Greek authorities to hold a referendum," write the European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso in a joint statement.
"We believe that this agreement is the best for Greece.We have every confidence in Greece to honor the commitments made to the euro area and the international community. "
José Manuel Barroso and Herman Van Rompuy added that they spoke with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou and said that the referendum question would be discussed on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Cannes, which runs from November 3 to 5.
The U.S. economy continued to grow at a slow pace in September, but prospects appear dim, believes the Federal Reserve in its "beige book" on Wednesday.
"The economy as a whole has continued to grow in September, although many districts described the pace of growth as" modest "or" low "and contacts have generally found a weakening outlook," says the Fed This situation report.
Wall Street and oil prices went up in free fall as a result of this paper while the price of Treasuries rose.
The memo on the economy the Fed is based on data collected before October 7 and deals with all the economic conditions in the 12 Fed districts, which cover the entire United States.
According to the Beige Book, consumer spending rose slightly in most districts, thanks to the automotive industry and tourism.
There was also an increase in business investment, particularly in construction and mining.
While a number of districts have experienced some recovery in construction activity, "the general conditions of real estate – residential as commercial – are still depressed."
Also according to the survey, several districts noted that many retailers are reluctant to build up stocks despite the approach of the holiday season, reflecting a decline in consumer confidence.
This holiday season – which runs from Thanksgiving to Christmas – is at least half the annual turnover of many stores.
Interviewed on CNBC, the president of the Boston Fed Eric Rosengren said the Fed may have to increase support measures if the U.S. economy weakened further or if it was affected by a new shock.
