The president of the U.S. central bank, Ben Bernanke, called on lawmakers to enact fiscal stimulus to support U.S. growth, which shows serious signs of slowing down. The chairman of the Federal Reserve (Fed), Friday, August 26 urged elected officials to take additional fiscal stimulus for employment.
The president of the U.S. central bank (Fed) Ben Bernanke on Friday called the political authorities in Washington to make fiscal stimulus to complement the effort of supporting the institution to grow. "The Fed will certainly do its utmost to help restore growth rates and employment rates in an environment of price stability," said Ben Bernanke in a speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming in the mountains (Western States USA)."However, most of the economic policy measures to support the long-term growth is a spring outside the central bank," he added.
For him, it is for elected officials to take additional fiscal stimulus for employment. Ben Bernanke does not really paved the way for further monetary easing as many had hoped. At most, he has not ruled out this possibility, stating that the regular meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Fed planned for September 20 would be extended by one day to allow a "fuller discussion" on the policy. While the economy seems to get bogged down, the head of the Federal Reserve believes that "the foundation of growth" are still there in the U.S., despite the persistence of "risks". He said GDP growth "should improve" the second half.
About the situation in Europe – one of the "risks" mentioned with that of the long-term situation of public finances U.S., Mr Bernanke said his optimism. "I am confident that our European colleagues are fully aware of what is at stake in the difficult problems they face today and that over time it will take all necessary and appropriate measures to deal effectively and fully, "said his speech.
The United States and China have shown a reassuring tone Friday by mentioning the issue of U.S. debt, on the occasion of the visit to China by Vice President Joe Biden.
It said Beijing had "nothing to fear" regarding the safety of its investments in the massive U.S. sovereign debt, while Premier Wen Jiabao praised the resilience of the U.S. economy.
Joe Biden is visiting China as it seeks to blur the differences between the two largest economies in the world and connect with the current and future leaders of the country.
Wen Jiabao said he was optimistic about the chances of the U.S. economy to get back on track, echoing comments made earlier by Vice President Xi Jinping, who should theoretically succeed Hu Jintao as President of countries.
"It is particularly important that you have sent to the Chinese people a very clear message that the United States will hold their word and meet their responsibilities for external debt.It will preserve the safety, liquidity and value of U.S. government bonds, "said Wen Jiabao to Joe Biden.
This is the first time a top Chinese leader expressed directly and publicly about the crisis in the U.S. debt since Standard & Poor's downgraded the sovereign rating of the United States.
Joe Biden said that Washington appreciated and rejoiced Chinese investment in U.S. Treasury bonds."Quite honestly, I want to assure you that you have no reason to worry," he said.
"Nobody ever won money by betting against the U.S.," he said earlier during a meeting with his counterpart Xi Jinping, according to a transcript of the interview.
Xi Jinping was in turn reported that the caller had informed him Thursday "the efforts undertaken by the U.S. government to boost growth and employment, reduce the budget deficit, properly manage debt and maintain the confidence of global investors."
"The U.S. economy is highly resistant and has a large capacity self-perpetuating.We believe that the U.S. economy will expand to even better in dealing with its challenges, "said Xi Jinping.
He reiterated the need for cooperation between Washington and Beijing to restore confidence in markets, and stressed that "confidence is more precious than gold."
After his visit to China, Joe Biden is scheduled to visit Mongolia and Japan.
The Governing Council of the ECB, meeting Sunday, decided to intervene decisively in the markets deal with the debt crisis that has shaken the euro area, a source said on Sunday monetary euro area.
The conference of Governors has carefully studied the situation in Italy and Spain, and noted the Franco-German press, said on the same source.
The ECB "will act significantly on markets and react significantly and united," reported the source.A statement from the ECB should be released shortly, she added.
The European Central Bank was to hold a conference call Sunday on the outstanding issue of possible purchases of debt securities Spanish or Italian, the rates jumped to their highest levels in 14 years.
In a statement released earlier Sunday, Paris and Berlin have affirmed the commitment of Europe to implement rapid reform EFSF decided July 21, encouraged Italy and Spain to act, and stressed the importance of the role of the ECB, a few hours before the opening of Asian markets.
The joint statement of the French Presidency and the German Chancellor, however, evokes not the situation of the United States, including the deterioration in the sovereign rating by S & P is another point of tension over the burning.
Royal Dutch Shell posted Thursday a 77% increase in net profit in the second quarter compared to last year, prices of oil and sustained asset sales more than offset a decline in production.
Shell's net income to current costs reached $ 8.0 billion (5.57 billion euros). Excluding items, the result stood at 6.55 billion, just below the average forecast of eight analysts polled by Reuters (6.70 billion).
Rival BP reported Tuesday a profit below expectations in the second quarter, while the market awaits the giant Exxon Mobil in the day it displays a jump of 50% of its underlying net profit.
IBM has published a quarterly profit up 8% over the previous year, thanks to the business performance of its computers and software.
The world's leading IT services has reported a net profit of 3.66 billion dollars (2.5 billion euros) in the second quarter, three dollars per share, against $ 3.39 billion, or 2 , $ 61 per share, a year earlier.
Revenues rose 12% to $ 26.7 billion while the Thomson Reuters consensus I / B / E / S gave 25.35 billion dollars.
"After adjusting for currency, revenue is still up 5% from one year to another.It's still a lot given the size and defensive strategy for IBM, "notes Amit Daryanani, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets.
The turnover of the software division increased 17% over the quarter, reaching $ 6.2 billion.
IBM raised its forecast for 2011 and now expects annual GAAP earnings per share to 12.87 dollars less.
The title is returned to IBM after-hours trading, rising 2% after being closed down by 0.14% to 175.28 dollars in New York Stock Exchange.
The group added that he ended the quarter with $ 11.8 billion in cash available.
The two rivals of the French retailers Carrefour and Casino have crossed swords on Monday a merger of their subsidiaries in Brazil, an operation taken by the Brazilian National Bank for Development (BNDES) but the group Etienne does not hear .
While Carrefour has announced that its Board of Directors supported the proposed merger, Casino has in turn denounced the offensive of its rival.
"The group Carrefour and Casino believes that its directors shall assume responsibility for accepting, despite the warnings, an operation engaged in a hostile and conducted as part of negotiations illegal," said Casino in a statement.
Casino is a shareholder of Grupo Pao de Acucar (GPA) up to 43.1% of the shares and exercise operational control on par with the billionaire Abilio Diniz – Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Brazilian distributor – in the Wilkes holding .
"Carrefour deliberately fails to specify that the agreement of Wilkes, and thus the casino is required," said Casino sees a dim view of a transaction after which it would be a minority in an entity controlled by rival Carrefour.
For Carrefour, the project would create a "major player in the distribution in Brazil" with a combined turnover exceeding 30 billion euros.
"In case of completion of the transaction, Carrefour significantly increase its exposure to growth markets, which account for more than 40% of its consolidated sales by 2013," said the dealer also said that a merger would generate 600 to 800 million euros in synergies.
The desire to Abilio Diniz GPA merge with a subsidiary of Carrefour comes as Casino has the opportunity to be sole master on board from June 2012 through the exercise of an option in the holding Wilkes.
The group led by Jean-Charles Naouri Abilio Diniz accuses of having entered into negotiations with Carrefour without consultation, an approach that considers illegal casino.
BATTLE OF LONG-TERM
With probable litigation in key financial markets are preparing for a battle of long duration, which doubles as an important political dimension, the Brazilian authorities did not hide their ambition to create a national champion of the distribution.
But since the first reports of Brazilian officials for the merger, the caution came back and the president of BNDES, Luciano Coutinho has said in the press this weekend, no operation would be without the casino.
According to a source familiar with the matter, Jean-Charles Naouri, CEO of Casino, went to Brazil to meet with officials from BNDES.
"Given the position taken by the BNDES this weekend's announcement by the Board of Directors of Carrefour is surprising," said an analyst in a note to CM CIC.
"But could he remain silent any longer?" Asks Christian for whom Devismes Carrefour's image could suffer a possible failure of this operation.
Other analysts questioned the likelihood that Carrefour has to force a merger, while Casino seems to have the cards to dismiss her rival.
"We are perhaps naive and we are not lawyers but having read the shareholders' agreement between Diniz and Casino again and again reminds us that no agreement is possible" without the support of Casino, consider analysts at the bank RBS.
Carrefour, weakened by three successive warnings about its results since the fall, remains under pressure from the markets and should include correct its hypermarkets in France and find growth opportunities abroad.
Strong growth, Brazil is a strategic market for the two French groups. Carrefour second market after France with 12.3% of total group sales, it accounts for about one third of 11.12 billion euros in sales of Casino International.
U.S. markets rebounded Monday after three sessions of losses, investors betting on a resolution of the puzzle next budget in Greece.
The NYSE has ended sharply higher by 0.91%, the Dow Jones Industrial winning 30 points to 12043.56 108.98 points.
The S & P-500, wider, took 11.65 points, or 0.92% to 1280.09 points.
The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 35.39 points for his side (1.33%) to 2688.28 points.
President Nicolas Sarkozy announced the outlines of a plan providing for the French private sector participation in solving the crisis in Greece, an assembly which is currently used as a basis for discussions in Europe to avoid a default of Greece.The announcement helped to reassure the markets.
The trend has benefited primarily for financial stocks, widely abused since the beginning of the Greek crisis.Bank of America acquired 3.13% of the session, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. took nearly 1%.
The banking sector has responded positively to a global banking regulators agree on a surcharge of capital lower than expected Saturday in Basel.
The values of the title Icagen has more than doubled, reaching a high of the year and closed up 163.76%, investors betting on an agreement between Pfizer and the biotech.
Bristol-Myers Squibb has however decreased by 1.59% after a study showing an increased number of cancers among patients of one of its diabetes treatment jointly developed with AstraZeneca.
The latest U.S. economic data did not provide real support to investors, consumer spending of U.S. households being unchanged in May for the first time in nearly a year, while revenues increased 0.3% , slightly lower than expected.
The first quarter GDP is estimated at 1.9% yoy against 1.8% previously.
Economic growth in the United States in the first quarter was revised up slightly to 1.9% annual rate according to the third assessment published Friday by the government. This estimate is slightly different from 1.8% published in late May Analysts had expected the Commerce Department would keep.
The ministry said it had revised down imports, which are deducted the gross domestic product in the calculation used by the United States, and increased stockpiling by businesses.
The growth rate of the world's largest economy is nevertheless disappointing. The third and fourth quarters of 2010, the United States saw its GDP grow by 2.6% and 3.1% annual rate over the previous quarter.And the government and the central bank had forecast in early 2011 on a further acceleration of the economy. She slowed the contrary, due among other things, a sharp rise in oil prices, which severely affected the purchasing power of Americans.
Household consumption (which accounts for 70% of the U.S.) rose 2.2% year on year (estimate unchanged), after 4.0% in the fourth quarter. She brought 1.52 percentage point of growth. The investment has paid better, increasing by 12.4% and contributing nearly as much growth (1.46 points). He was helped by the rise in stocks (1.31 contributed to the growth point).
With the end of the recovery plan in March 2009 federal budget problems and state and local governments, public spending has been a negative factor for growth (-1.20 points). They had never fallen as much since 1983.
The majority of economists, growth in the second quarter should have been at best a bit faster than the first, but clearly insufficient to bring down unemployment, which affects the United States.
Nasdaq OMX groups and IntercontinentalExchange are about to launch a hostile takeover of the New York Stock Exchange, owned by NYSE Euronext, it was learned Thursday from sources familiar with the matter.
Nasdaq and Ice have thus chosen to go directly to the shareholders of the Big Board and the Paris Bourse.
The board of directors of Nasdaq plans to meet in coming days to discuss the launch date of the offer, says one.
The board of directors of NYSE Euronext has twice rejected the offer of 11.1 billion Nasdaq / Ice, preferring quiet of 10.1 billion German Deutsche Börse.
However, some shareholders spoke at the general meeting held on Thursday, to open negotiations with Nasdaq OMX and IntercontinentalExchange (Ice).
But NYSE Euronext has renewed his call Thursday to its ownership structure so that it supports the takeover offer by Deutsche Börse on the occasion of the release of strong quarterly results.
Brent finished Wednesday's sharp rise of 1.62%, or $ 1.96, to 122.88 dollars a barrel, after announcing a sharp drop in U.S. gasoline reserves.
Shortly before, the U.S. light crude had closed up 0.81% on the New York market, taking 86 cents to 107.11 dollars a barrel.
