Top Economics News

The rapid increase of the debt crisis in the euro area threatens the credit ratings of all European states, warned Sunday the U.S. rating agency Moody's. Moody's in New York.

In a "special comment" on European countries published Sunday, Moody's says it still considers that the euro area will maintain its unity without any fault as that of Greece, but notes that even this' scenario 'positive' carries consequences very negative for the notes "of European countries. The U.S. rating agency, recently warned that France could lose its "triple A" allowing it to borrow at favorable rates in the markets, and clearly indicates that no country, even among those considered most solids, such as the Netherlands, Austria, Finland or Germany, is immune to a lowering of note.

Other countries may need help

While countries such as Italy and Hungary have more and more difficult to obtain financing at rates viable markets, Moody's wrote that "the political momentum to implement an effective solution to the crisis could n ' be found after a series of shocks, which could lead more countries to be deprived of access to funding markets for an extended period. " The agency is referring to countries like Ireland, Greece, Portugal or Hungary, which have benefited from one or more financial rescue from the European Union or the International Monetary Fund. She said other countries may need to use this kind of solution if the EU fails to quickly find an adequate response to the crisis, these countries would then most likely lowered their rating to that of a investment "speculative."

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Core values ​​to take on Wall Street Thursday.

* Chevron announced Thursday a 3.8% increase in its quarterly dividend, which will reach 81 cents per share.

* RAYTHEON published adjusted earnings of $ 1.39 per share for the third quarter and a turnover of 6.13 billion, against a consensus Thomson Reuters I / B / E / S of 6.38 billion of dollars.

* Procter & Gamble announced Thursday an increase in sales in the first quarter of fiscal year and an earnings per share in line with analysts' expectations.

With $ 21.9 billion, the revenue exceeds the consensus Thomson Reuters I / B / E / S, which included 21.53 billion dollars.

Earnings per share was announced at $ 1.03, as expected.Turnover was up 14% to $ 1.68 billion (1.66 billion expected, on average).

* BMC SOFTWARE, which develops business software, announced an adjusted earnings per share of 87 cents against 81 cents expected for the second quarter of fiscal year.

Revenues also exceeded expectations, with 556.3 million against $ 540.4 million expected.

* AETNA – The third group American Health Insurance has reported a profit higher than expected for the third quarter due to a small number of claims.

Earnings excluding items rose to $ 1.40 per share.Analysts on average expected $ 1.15.

Net income stood at 490.4 million dollars against 497.6 million a year earlier. The turnover, however, fell 0.7% to 8.48 billion dollars.

* LAZARD – The investment bank saw its net profit fall by 2% in the third quarter versus the same period in 2010 due to lower revenue from business advisory and asset management.

Net income was $ 62.7 million, or 49 cents a share, against $ 64 million (51 cents) a year earlier.

Standard & Poor's Tuesday lowered a notch credit rating of ten Spanish banks, including the two largest in the country, pointing to the darkening economic prospects and a housing market still depressed.

Fitch Ratings has reduced its share shortly after the note of six banks in the wake of its decision, announced Friday, to lower the rating of Spain by two notches to AA-.

Among the banks downgraded by S & P are Santander and BBVA, key institutions of the country.Their two notes back from AA to AA-and carry a negative outlook.

S & P also revised the rating outlook for four banks, reducing it from stable to negative, and placed the bank under review with negative implications.

The prospect of all banks rated by S & P is now negative, meaning that further declines are possible notes.

Fitch, Banco Santander fell from AA to AA-and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) from AA-to A +.

Other banks involved include Banco Popular Espanol to BBB +. This note is placed under review with negative implications because of its exchange offer launched on Banco Pastor.

The exemption from taxation of capital gains on sale of property, excluding principal residence, will no longer only after 30 years, against 15 at present. From 1 February 2012, the exemption from taxation of real estate capital gains will be complete only after 30 years in prison.

First measure of austerity, the new method of taxation of capital gains, property was passed in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday. After a lengthy discussion of the implementing rules, MEPs adopted the exemption of real estate gains of second homes after 30 years of holding the property. The current system reduces the taxable gain on resale of 10% per year from five years of detention, where a full exemption after 15 years ..

The entry into force of the device has also been postponed to 1 February 2012 and not August 25, 2011.Which will result in a shortfall of 180 million euros this year. In the end, the measure will bring 2.05 billion euros in 2012 instead of the 2.2 billion expected previously.

The compromise, "a major effort" according to Valerie Pécresse, Minister for the Budget, is in fact a system of progressive discounts. A number of deputies to the UMP and the New Center, wanted to return to the detail and the regressivity of the system over time. Now it will be 2% for each year between 5 and 15 years in prison, 4% for each year beyond 17 years, 8% beyond 24 years to 30 years. That amendment, designed to "take into account inflation in the 80" results in "an additional cost of 30 million" annually, said Ms. Pécresse.

During the debate, Michel Bouvard (UMP) has highlighted the issue of those who have no residence, untaxed, and holder of a second home."We need to think about it" in the forthcoming Finance Bill 2012, the minister conceded.

The British authorities to fight against fraud are currently reviewing certain transactions by Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs, the Financial Times reported Monday.

The daily said that the investigation is part of a collection of evidence to determine whether certain financial institutions have fraudulently presented some financial stocks to their customers and counterparties is misleading.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) UK has spent the last two years to focus on sales of bonds backed by home loans (ABS) and their possible role in the financial crisis of 2008-2009.

Monday, fifteen minutes after the opening, the action Deutsche Bank lost 5.5% to 24.59 euros.The European sector index banks lost 3.31% to him, in reaction to the fact that the U.S. federal agency oversight of mortgage loans (Federal Housing Finance Agency, or FHFA) filed a complaint Friday against 17 major financial institutions for losses relating to bonds linked to subprime.

Deutsche Bank is already covered since Friday by a complaint from the U.S. federal agency oversight of mortgage (FHFA), which accuses 17 major international financial institutions for a total loss of $ 41 billion in bonds linked to subprime These loans granted without regard to the resources of borrowers.

Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase or Societe Generale are among the other banks involved.

According to the FT, the British SFO also examines transactions Goldman Sachs, which said the file Timberwolf, an ABS fitted by the bank in 2007 and that U.S. authorities are also interested.

The SFO has not yet opened a formal investigation but has appealed for witnesses.

Neither Deutsche Bank nor Goldman Sachs were not immediately available for comment on the report.

Preferred placement of French, has seen its Livret A collection rise sharply in July before raising his salary and in a context of concern related to the debt crisis, show figures released Tuesday by the Deposit and Consignment Office.

The collection of this tax-free booklet, identified more than 60 million copies by the end of 2010 the Bank of France, reached 2.07 billion euros last month, the highest figure for 11 months.

Its total assets has reached 207.5 billion euros.

The Handbook of Sustainable Development (LDD, former Codevi) has meanwhile seen its cash flows turn positive again, to 0.28 billion, after two months of outflows.

The pay rate of the Livret A is passed on 1 August from 2.0% to 2.25% under the rules in force since 1986 which provide an adjustment for changes in money market rates and inflation .

The previous increase, already a quarter of a point on February 1, had boosted the collection in January and February.

With these increases in pay, which keep it above the level of inflation, combined with the trend, observed since the 2008 crisis, friendly and non-risk liquid investments, including at the expense life insurance.

The Livret A have increased by 12.14 billion euros since the beginning of this year, an increase that exceeds already seven months, that of the whole of 2010 (10.1 billion). The collection of life insurance has decreased by 11% along the first half, to 69.3 billion euros, according to statistics from the French Federation of Insurance Companies (FFSA).

European shares opened lower Wednesday, following Wall Street, the proposals announced yesterday by Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy to find solutions to the debt crisis in Europe is not successful in convincing investors.

Around 9:30, the CAC 40 was down 0.86% to 3203.06 points. Other major European markets, London and Frankfurt, respectively, dropping 1.13% and 1.67%, Milan 1.32% yield.Of the European indices, the EuroStoxx 50 fell by 1.38% and 1.04% Eurofirst 300 loses.

Paris and Berlin have certainly proposed Tuesday the creation of an economic government of the eurozone and the adoption by all countries of the single currency, a "golden rule" of good management of public finances.

But most investors hold the postponement of some decisions such as the issuance of Eurobonds and the idea of ​​a tax on financial transactions.

"He has not had a scoop, these proposals had already been raised in recent days and the lack of project Eurobonds market was not convinced," said a stock dealer based in Paris.

As for values, the possibility to implement a tax on all financial transactions hanging over the financial sector, analysts point out. BNP Paribas shows the largest drop in the CAC 40, with a decline of 2.11%, 1.8% Societe Generale loose and Credit Agricole 1.19%.Stoxx index of bank lost 1.73%.

"Assuming that the proposed tax is based on the current proposal of the European Commission, a fee of 10 basis points (bps) on stocks and bonds and derivatives on a pdb, multiply it by 10 to 20 the transaction costs, "said UBS in a note.

Similarly, the stock exchange operators are affected by this proposal, noting that UBS in the 1990s Sweden had introduced such a tax had seen the volumes of the stock market melt of 85%.

The Swiss bank said this could influence the proposed mergers and acquisitions and reduce premiums for this type of operation.

NYSE Euronext loses 6.21% 3.14% Deutsche Börse and London Stock Exchange Group 3.45%.

On the foreign exchange market, traders were not convinced either by the Franco-German proposals, the euro falling by 0.12% against the greenback at 1.4378 dollar.

The government promises to reform disaster to try to curb the movement, which denounced the surge in housing prices and widening social inequalities. A young Israeli is taking part in a protest against rising property prices, which brought together tens of thousands in Tel Aviv July 30, 2011.

Undermined by social unrest on a scale unprecedented in Israel, the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu had promised to forward the reforms. At the opening Sunday of the Cabinet, the Prime Minister announced that he would appoint an "inter-ministerial team responsible for presenting a plan to ease the economic burden [hanging] on citizens," said an official.This decision, following the measures taken in disaster last week, came a day after massive demonstrations across the country that brought together 150,000 Israelis according to media reports, more than 100,000 according to police.

The demonstrators, mostly Jews but also Arabs, marched Saturday in ten cities under the slogan "The people want social justice, not charity." The protest, which was initially soaring house prices, deals more generally with the increase in social inequality and the deterioration of public services, particularly in the field of health and education.The challenge is first part of the middle class crushed by the ever increasing cost of living, the result of a market controlled by a few families.

For now, it is not threatening to bring down the government, which has a strong majority in Parliament, based on the alliance between right and extreme right and religious parties. And Benjamin Netanyahu, whose popularity has fallen sharply, there is no reason to provoke early elections ahead of schedule in 2013. "The prime minister is aware of a genuine discontent in sections of the population who fail not make ends meet month, "he told public radio the spokesman of the Prime Minister Gideon Schmerling. He said that Benjamin Netanyahu was considering a reduction in indirect taxes and wanted to encourage competition by reducing the concentration of capital in the hands of a few.An inter-ministerial commission responsible for this matter has been specially convened for Sunday, he said. For its part, the Director General of the Ministry of Finance, Haim Shani, announced his resignation, as opposed to an increase in public spending.

"Netanyahu is good reason to worry"

"In the short term, the government is not at risk, but this is more true in the medium term. Netanyahu has good reason to worry" also considers the political scientist Yaron Ezrachi. "His problem is that to satisfy everyone will have to pay an economic price too high," says the professor of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who expects that the extreme right and religious "are the first to leave a sinking ship. "According to the researcher, the "weak link in his coalition is the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, required to provide insurance to its base" consists of poor segments of the Jewish population from Arab countries and headed by the Minister of Inside Eli Yishai, Sunday publicly supported the claims of social movement.

"Never before were such crowds took to the streets on social issues", says the mass-circulation daily Yediot Aharonot. The newspaper noted "the hostility and even panic that caused the protest movement in the direction of the settlers' West Bank Jews, who accuse the left of the handle.

Microsoft has once again exceeded the expectations of Wall Street with the announcement of its quarterly results Thursday, thanks to strong sales of its Office suite and its XBox console.

The share price has a downward trend, however, investors feared that weak demand in the PC does not penalize the sales of Windows.

After those of Apple, Google and IBM, Microsoft results confirm the good health of the technology sector.

Microsoft has announced a net profit of 5.87 billion dollars, or 69 cents per share in earnings in the fourth quarter of fiscal, against 4.52 billion dollars and 51 cents a year earlier.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I / B / E / S on average expected earnings of 58 cents.This is the ninth consecutive time that Microsoft beat the consensus by means of its quarterly results.

Turnover was up 8% to 17.37 billion dollars, where analysts expected 17.23 billion.

The increase in sales of software of the Office suite, XBox consoles and remote computer systems ("cloud computing").

KINECT scrambled ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY

The action Microsoft has fluctuated in after-hours trading following the release of these figures, eventually stabilizing at a level close to the closing price on Nasdaq, or 27.09 dollars.

Over the past twelve months, as Microsoft has gained 8% while the Nasdaq has generally appreciated by 30%.

Microsoft's business division, which launched last month the online version of the Office suite, saw its sales grow by 7% to $ 5.8 billion.

Division "server and tools", which sells software used for the services of "cloud computing", achieved a turnover of $ 4.6 billion, up 12%.

The entertainment industry, which sells game consoles and phones, saw its sales jump 30% to $ 1.5 billion, largely thanks to the XBox and its new Kinect motion detection.

In contrast, sales of the Windows division fell 0.8% to 4.7 billion.

Finally, the branch line service, which oversees the Bing and the MSN portal, saw its sales grow by 16.5% to $ 662 million.

However, this activity traditionally deficit Microsoft could reverse the trend and recorded a loss of 728 million dollars against 662 million a year earlier.

This result illustrates the heavy investment by Microsoft to compete with Google. Three fiscal years, this branch of Microsoft has lost a total of $ 6.5 billion.

Some officials of the Federal Reserve were willing to further easing in monetary policy if the recovery was too soft to flow back as long as unemployment and inflation is slowing, according to the minutes of the last meeting of the U.S. central bank Tuesday.

The Fed had not so far as clearly suggested that a third series of so-called quantitative easing could be considered after the end of the second round of $ 600 billion, known as QE2 in late June

Other members of the Fed at the meeting of June 21 and 22 disagreed.For them, if the acceleration of price increases will not calm down, the Fed should consider tightening its monetary policy more quickly than expected.

All members of the Monetary Policy Committee (FOMC), however, felt that the recovery had slowed since their April forecast and estimated that the recent deterioration of conditions in the labor market was a particular concern because it was likely to weigh on consumer spending.

Most analysts believe the next move by the Fed will raise interest rates rather than offer new support measures by buying bonds or maintaining rates at historically low levels.

However, the markets believe the Fed will not increase its rates by mid-2012.

The Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke encountered all member of Congress for two days on Wednesday and Thursday for his speech six months. On this occasion it should give details of internal discussions at the Fed. It will start on Wednesday to be questioned by members of the Financial Services Commission of the House of Representatives.

The Fed has also alluded to the problem of raising the ceiling of the debt of the United States.She believes that if nothing is done by August 2, the United States will find themselves unable to fulfill certain obligations.

"Even a short delay in the payment of principal or interest on Treasury bonds could cause major disruptions in the markets and could also have a lasting effect on borrowing costs in the United States," we read in the account Proceedings of the FOMC.