Business News & Financial News

LVMH wipes one of the largest declines in the CAC 40 stock market Friday morning, a victim of profit taking after the publication of its annual results, after winning more than 21% since mid-December .

Stakeholders believe however that the title could quickly resume colors, these results with 2011 confirmed the good resistance of luxury to the crisis, with prospects for the year 2012 found very reassuring .

At 11:00, the title fell by 0.87% to 125.25 euros in a volume of nearly 455,000 pieces, or 41% of its average daily volume the past three months, while the CAC 40 is stable.

"These are profit-taking. The results are very good. LVMH has proven its strength in non-crisis and crisis. The title should rebound quickly (upwards), "said one trader

. LVMH has published annual results up sharply, signing new records through the acquisition of Bulgari, and once again demonstrating the resilience of luxury to shocks in the economy

….. …. "LVMH is a history of strong growth and fits well with the themes of our strategic team for 2012 (quality, sustainable growth, large capitalization, strong balance sheet)," said Thomas Chauvet, an analyst at Citi

. But he wonders if time is not ripe for the title of a break in a context of weak growth

. "After the 15% increase in luxury and LVMH shares, with limited potential for earnings growth in short term, we see only modest upside potential for the course, "he said. 

"Like the rest of the sector (with the exception of Tiffany), LVMH shares performed well since the beginning of the year, supported by stronger growth than expected in its sector fourth quarter, a favorable exchange rate developments and an appetite for stocks with high beta (volatility). Despite positive comments from CEO of LVMH, the action probably warrants a pause, "says Antoine Belge of HSBC

. Analysts already largely positive on the title, welcome the absence of growth deceleration in the fourth quarter and in January, several of which have raised their forecasts for 2012 and their price target

. "We note the strong momentum in the fourth quarter by region and by industry, the figures being very close to those of the third quarter, "wrote Thomas Mesmin, an analyst at CA Cheuvreux, which raised its price target from 19% to EUR 150

… …… "Management remains optimistic for 2012 and reports a good start to the year, particularly in Asia (Chinese New Year) and the United States. Local demand in Europe continues to grow, which is a very reassuring, "he says

. Oddo Securities also raised its price target on LVMH, which rose from 140 to 146 euros, and its estimate of 2012 net income, noting that the EBIT for 2011 published is 3% above the market consensus

. In a note on LVMH entitled "Crisis? What Crisis ", Natixis Securities is also its price target, going from 140 to 147 euros, and confirmed its recommendation to buy

……. .. "The fourth quarter exceeded expectations ends the year in style and confirms the excellent level of business despite the current depressed. The strengths of the group (unique portfolio of brands, global presence) will play back full in 2012, "wrote analysts at Natixis in their daily note

.

France should maintain its valuable credit rating "AAA" Despite the security which would make Paris a portion of the bond portfolio of troubled bank Dexia and a possible capital injection into banks, analysts said a Reuters poll .

They point out that this type of guarantee, recorded as an off-balance in the public accounts, and a possible capital investment banks, which could eventually generate a profit, do not pose a risk to the sovereign debt.

But the rescue of Dexia, which should be formalized on Sunday, and a new injection of public funds in other banks will form a new constraint on the flexibilities of the French government, which announced a few weeks ago to 12 billion euros of savings in order to preserve the triple "A" credit rating the highest possible.

Analysts point out however they can not confirm their hypothesis that once the details of the dismantling of Dexia are known.

The Belgian, French and Luxembourg reaffirmed Sunday after a meeting held at midday in Brussels their solidarity in the search for a solution that ensures the future of Franco-Belgian bank.

In a joint statement, the Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme and French François Fillon stated that the three governments give their full support to the proposals of management of the banking group, presented at a Board of Directors scheduled to begin at 15:00 in Brussels.

The activities of the Franco-Belgian bank, first bank in size in Europe to be a victim of the crisis of sovereign debt in the euro zone could be split and the most risky assets confined to a separate structure.

Brussels and Paris are trying to agree on the guarantees afforded by the two countries to the hive to accommodate the bond portfolio of 95 billion euros in Dexia, hoping not to aggravate the situation of public finances .

The rating agency Moody's has also increased pressure on the Belgian camp Friday night: it has placed the sovereign rating of Aa1 by explaining kingdom under surveillance will include assessing the costs and liabilities that the state could play in supporting Dexia.

The growth slowdown coupled with the dynamism of the labor force will not help to reduce the number of unemployed, estimated employment center in its economic outlook. Agency employment center in Nice

Employment center does not provide for improvement on the unemployment front table and at best a stabilization of the number of job seekers in 2011 and 2012 and, at worst, a deepening if growth turned out lower than forecast government. "The slowdown in job creation combined with the dynamism of the labor force should not be allowed to initiate a decline in unemployment," said employment center in its economic outlook published Tuesday, October 4.

For 2011, the Agency plans to increase the number of job seekers without any activity of 5000 and 78,000 by including persons who have reduced activity.These predictions are based on a growth assumption of 1.75%, made by the government. Next year, "unemployment started to decline," if growth remained at 1.7% (assuming the government), with a decline in the number of job seekers with no activity on the order of 5000 and 12,000 by integrating people with reduced activity.

However, "if growth slowed in 2012, unemployment would continue to grow," said employment center. Based on a growth assumption of 1.4% (the IMF), the number of job seekers with no activity would increase by about 27,000.The prospect of a "stabilization of unemployment seems reasonable, except major accident" by the end of the year, said at a press briefing Christian Charpy, general manager of employment center.

Job creation is not strong enough to absorb the increase of the labor force

But, "unemployment will not reach the level it had before the entry into recession in early 2008," noted Bernard Ernst, director of studies of employment center who recalled that in previous crises of 1974 and 1992 the Unemployment had found "quite quickly" its pre-crisis. These forecasts are more optimistic than those of UNEDIC (unemployment insurance) that, based on growth in 2012 of 1.2% (consensus of economists) has provided an increase of 36,700 unemployed with no activity this year and 55,500 next year. "At this stage, a forecast of 1.2% in 2012 seems overly pessimistic," said Mr.Charpy.

Employment center provides, in addition, 130,000 net new jobs this year by companies affiliated with unemployment insurance, but the momentum is down (44 000 in the second half, against 96,000 in the first). In 2012, job creation should remain the same (126 000) if growth remained at 1.7% but reach only 101,000, with growth slowing to 1.4%. These new jobs do not seem sufficient to reduce unemployment because they are less than the increase in the labor force estimated at 140,000 or 150,000 per year.

According to Bernard Ernst, the labor force could grow more than expected after the announcement by INSEE in mid-May to strong growth in first quarter (0.9%).The prospect of an upturn in the economy brought on the labor market of people (youth, women etc) that were not previously found that increased enrollment in the employment center lists the "first mover" and people signing up for a "return to work," he said. "Registration for employment center are not independent of the economy" said Mr. Charpy.

The slide in equity markets was confirmed in the U.S. where the indices showed pronounced declines Thursday in the wake of European stock markets and in response to the publication of an indicator credence to the claim of an economy at a standstill .

The New York Stock Exchange ended down 4.31%, the Dow Jones industrial yielding 30 512.76 points to 11,383.68 points.

The S & P-500, wider, lost 60.27 points, or -4.78% to 1200.07 points.

The Nasdaq Composite fell on its side of 136.68 points (-5.08%) to 2556.39 points.

The volatility index, sometimes called fear index, jumped 35.41%.

"There is a major correction," said Joseph Cangemi, managing director of BNY ConvergEx in New York.

The S & P 500 posted its worst performance since a meeting on February 10, 2009.

The discussions in Washington on controlling the fiscal deficit through a reduction in public spending and the publication of unemployment figures are bad to fear a new market into recession the world's largest economy.

The jobless claims in the week to July 30 fell by only 1,000 units compared to the previous week during which they had registered at 401,000 (revised from 398,000).

The remarks by the President of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet, who believes that the latest data indicate some deceleration in the pace of economic growth, have also produced a negative effect on the markets.

The fears weighing on demand had a negative first groups related to energy and raw materials.The S & P energy and materials that have plunged over 6% each.

The title General Motors sold 4.34% after publishing its results.

The action also AIG tumbled 6.34% as the group publishes its results after the close of Wall Street.

A reverse trend, the giant U.S. food Kraft Foods announced plans to split into two separate companies, while posting better than expected results and raising its forecast for 2011.

All these ads allowed under Kraft to break his fall and yield only 1.5% after jumping nearly 3% earlier in the session.

Company well established in France and in all the capitals of energy, Technip is the ideal partner to help us meet these major tenders, "said Keith Anderson, president of the offshore division of Iberdrola.

Areva was committed to the end of June to become the exclusive supplier of turbines powering offshore wind farms developed by Iberdrola.

Technip has in turn opened Monday the head of its operations offshore wind farms near Aberdeen, Scotland, joining other market players like Gamesa, Vestas and Siemens.

The new center will accompany the offshore wind projects in Britain and Europe, said Technip.

PPR saw its operating performance brought by luxury semi which enjoys an application whose force can not be denied.

The luxury group and distribution, which owns Gucci, Puma, Redcats and Fnac, saw sales rise by 7.3% in the first half to 7.2 billion, a figure close to the consensus of analysts polled by Reuters (7 , 13 billion).

Like Hermes, LVMH and Burberry, before him, the luxury division of PPR has far exceeded analysts' expectations, with organic growth of 23.2% and 24.4% in the second quarter alone (against 19% expected), marking a further acceleration from a leap of 22% in the first quarter.

In contrast, the distribution center, to be sold by the group, saw its sales fall by 1.4% semi-annual (on a comparable basis), weighed down by poor performance of FNAC (-3.2%) to facing an extremely difficult environment in France, while Redcats (Distance Selling) fared better (0.8%).

The sporting goods company Puma has seen its sales increase by 9.4%.

Current operating income rose 14.5% to 749 million euros (730 million expected) and net income excluding items increased 24% to 466 million euros.

The title PPR closed at 129.85 euros at the Paris Stock Exchange Thursday, signing a 9% increase since the beginning of the year, for a market capitalization of 16.3 billion euros.

At these levels of price, value is treated on valuation multiples of 13.4 times its estimated earnings for 2012, far behind the "pure" players like LVMH luxury (19 times) and Richemont (16.4 times).

Four months to the day after the accident at the nuclear plant, the lives of Japanese is upset. And not just in Fukushima. L'Expansion. Com is the point. Japan Earthquake, Natori City. Homes swept away by the tsunami. March 11, 2011. 23,000 dead or missing because of the earthquake

This is the painful record of the tsunami that struck Japan on March 11. In total 23,000 people are dead or missing after the magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami giant.

At least 150 billion euros of damage

In late June, the Japanese government amounted to almost 150 billion damage caused by the disaster, the equivalent of 3.5% of Japanese GDP, which would make it the costliest natural disaster in history.A total that does not include indirect economic consequences of the tsunami, such as electricity shortages and disruptions to business activity such as automobiles, or the fallout from the nuclear accident. Mid-March, the Bank of Japan injected 309 billion euros into the economy. To finance the reconstruction, the government has passed a supplementary budget of 51 billion euros that could still add 34 billion more.

20 mSv / h, the new standard allowed

Difficult to get an idea of ​​the level of radioactivity in Japan. Some large cities like Tokyo levels appear to fully comply with international standard (0.1 microsieverts per hour). But recently, the Japanese authorities decided to raise the threshold of 1 mSv / year to 20 mSv / year (standard usually allowed for nuclear workers).A decision deemed incomprehensible by public opinion, especially in Fukushima where children are likely more contamination. Recently one of the four measurements made in this city of nearly 300,000 inhabitants reported a rate of 46,540 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram, while the statutory maximum rate is 10,000 becquerels Japan. Result, the inhabitants of the city, aided by numerous community associations, are increasingly likely to ask to be evacuated, but authorities refuse to do so persistently. Saturday, high levels of cesium – more than six times the permitted levels of radioactivity – have been found in beef from the prefecture of Fukushima.

100,000 tons of contaminated water to the central Fukushima

TEPCO engineers, the operator of the plant, are still hard at work to regain control of the six reactors on the site.Almost 100 000 tons of contaminated water are indeed still trapped in buildings. To cool the reactors – until the cooling system announced for January 2012 – the Japanese are forced to pay 500 tonnes of water each day to prevent nuclear fuel to heat. Unfortunately, some of that water accumulates in plants, which could cause an overflow if the pumping system is not recovering the way very quickly. To believe the authorities, cleaning and decommissioning of the "take three, five, ten years or even decades to manage the accident," said this weekend the Prime Minister of Japan, Naoto Kan. Scary … Despite this the Japanese government reiterated on Monday that he was out of question to challenge the nuclear industry.

– 15% of electricity consumption in Tokyo

Since the accident, 35 of the 54 reactors installed in Japan have not been restarted. 19 are currently active, the others being stopped is a direct result of an earthquake, or for maintenance. The lack of electricity begins to be felt by residents worried about not being able to cope with very hot humid summer coming. Injunction on government, businesses and administrations of the Capital Region must reduce 15% electricity consumption from July 1 to avoid power cuts.

11 billion in losses for Tepco

The operator of the plant in late March issued a loss of nearly 11 billion euros in fiscal year 2010-2011, the heaviest ever experienced by a Japanese company outside the financial sector.Involved, the massive depreciation of assets and the cost of emergency operations resulting from the disaster. The group will also have to compensate 160,000 victims for a total of about 8.5 billion euros. To avoid bankruptcy in the Japanese utility, the government has provided a mechanism for public funding of compensation in case Tepco could cope, but the bill is stuck in parliament.

NYSE Euronext's shareholders Thursday approved the takeover of the U.S. and European exchange operator by its German rival Deutsche Börse.

The proportion of voters who said yes is about 96%, representing 65.6% of the capital, given the preliminary results.The final statement is expected on Friday.

The merger of $ 9.4 billion also requires the affirmative vote of 75% of the shareholders of Deutsche Börse by next Wednesday, and endorsed by the European Commission.

The German exchange operator Deutsche Börse welcomed the outcome of this election but not the works council has recommended that shareholders do not vote for a transaction that, in his opinion, "penalizes" the company.

For him, it amounts to a "reverse takeover" which does not give enough consideration to the interests of the shareholders of Deutsche Börse.

What the CEO of NYSE Euronext Duncan Niederauer responds: "I have not met a single shareholder in Deutsche Börse, which does not support the transaction."

Both places say that the merger between the two operators is a transaction between equals. Duncan Niederauer to be CEO of the new entity but Deutsche Börse must have 10 of the 17 members of the board.In addition shareholders have about 60% of the company is registered in the Netherlands.

The reconciliation between the two places was announced in February as part of a vast movement of concentration in the sector.

NYSE Euronext had been against a range of Nasdaq-OMX Group and IntercontinentalExchange his partner in April, but both backed off after the rejection of this operation by the U.S. Department of Justice, for reasons competition.

The NYSE Euronext shares gained nearly 3% at midday. Deutsche Boerse closed up 2.4%.

European markets closed up Friday for the fifth straight session, supported late in the session by announcing an acceleration of growth in U.S. manufacturing.

European shares were boosted throughout the week in anticipation of an early solution to the debt crisis in Greece.

The CAC 40 index closed just above the psychological barrier of 4,000 points, up 0.63% to 4007.35 points.Over the whole week, the Paris index jumped 5.88%, its largest increase since the week of July 12, 2010.

According to Pierre Vignaud, an analyst at Graphic CM-CIC Securities, the upward trend will be honest if the CAC 40 crossed the next key resistance area from 3980 to 4020 points, corresponding to its moving average 1,000 days.

"The markets continue to evolve erratically in the weeks and months ahead," said Jean-Marie Mercadal, however, responsible for management positions at OFI Asset Management.

"Before leaving there, he would have great visibility on the economy and the problem of sovereign debt, which is far from the case.We patched things, but it is far from having solved the problem, "he said.

Financial stocks continued to benefit from the growing optimism about the financial situation of Greece after the adoption of austerity plan by the Greek Parliament and a new agreement was reached Friday to release the next tranche of loans in Athens.

Credit Agricole (4.10% to 10.795 euros) topped increases the CAC 40 in front of Societe Generale (3.71% to 42.440), Natixis (3.61% to 3.585) and BNP Paribas (+ 2.46% to 54.540 euros).

Other major European markets have also ended the week well, regaining their highest in a month ago: London has been 0.74% and 0.59% Frankfurt.

Of the European indices, the EuroStoxx 50 gained 0.95% and the Eurofirst 300 rose 0.76%.

Over the whole week, it took European index 3.6% after eight weeks of consecutive decline.

In this context of relief for the eurozone, the euro is trading around 1.4510 dollars against 1.4498 1.4190 Thursday and Friday.

U.S. light crude dropped $ 1.16 to 94.25 dollars a barrel.

Inflation eased slightly in France in May helped by lower energy prices, which almost offset the continuing rise in food prices many.

The index of consumer prices rose 0.1% from April, show statistics released Wednesday by the INSEE. Over a year, its increase was reduced to 2.0% against 2.1% the previous month.The peak marked its highest level since the fall of 2008.

"In May 2011, increases and decreases balance almost says the institute in a statement: the seasonal increase in prices of fresh produce is particularly strong this year and other food products is important for the contrary, prices of energy and transport services and communications are down. "

The energy price drop in effect for the first time in eight months, 1.3% from April in the wake of crude oil prices.They show, however, still a jump of 11.3% over one year.

Meanwhile, food prices jumped 1.0% over one month, fresh produce increased again (+3.4%) while those of other products remain on the increase (+0.6% on one month, +2.0% YoY).

On the services side, with prices rising 0.1% in May and 1.8% year on year, INSEE noted a decline in air fares (-2.3% in one month, three, 3% a year) after spring break and as telecommunications (-1.1% -2.4% yoy).

Prices of manufactured goods, they have decreased by 0.1% over the month, due largely to the decline of those cars (-1.7% in one month) and audiovisual equipment and computer.

NO ARGUMENT FOR THE ECB

The HICP HICP, which allows a comparison at European level was up by 0.1% in May and poster for the third consecutive month, a 2.2% annual rate, a level above the threshold 2.0%, which the European Central Bank intends to hold it.

Inflation in the euro area slowed slightly in May to 2.7% yoy in the first estimate published on May 31Final figures from Eurostat are expected Thursday.

The ECB president, Jean-Claude Trichet, however, hinted earlier this month at his monthly press conference, that the imposition of Frankfurt could again raise its interest rates in July, after the rise of a quarter-point decided in April.

A new upward, for France, "is not justified," said Alexander Law, chief economist of the research institute Xerfi.

"The tightening expected in July of the ECB's monetary policy will thus act as a brake on the real economy at a time when the economy shows signs of deterioration in France and elsewhere in Europe," he says pointing out that the French inflation remains subdued at 1.2% over one year.

The central bank justified in particular by his will this tightening to prevent "second-round effects" in light transmission to wages and consumer prices from rising commodity prices.Earlier this year, Jean-Claude Trichet had even considered that increasing wages would be "the last of nonsense."

In France, if the increase in payroll was relatively increased in recent months (the average wage rose 1.7% in the first quarter), the purchasing power remains at the forefront of political and social debate, as show the current debate on the "dividend premium" and social movements in several major companies.

From this point of view, the inflation figures for June will be studied carefully because they could trigger a new appreciation of the minimum wage after the 1.6% effective January 1.

The price index excluding tobacco urban households whose head is a worker or employee who serves as a reference to the minimum wage, shows through May up 1.9% from the level used for the last adjustment. Or a tenth of a point below the threshold triggering a revaluation.

Detailed statistics on the site of INSEE