US & World News

The Tokyo Stock Exchange finished Monday down 0.7% after the publication of an indicator and found disappointing results of a forecast of lower than expected from Toyota.

The Nikkei lost 66.23 points to 9,448.21 and the Topix broader yielded 5.12 points (0.63%) to 812.26.

Orders for machine tools dropped unexpectedly in April, a sign that the difficulties of the country's energy supply penalize investment.

However, the application should go back in the coming months with the campaign to rebuild the north-east of the country, devastated by the earthquake and tsunami of 11 March.

The second disappointment that had an impact on the meeting came from the manufacturer Toyota, which announced on Friday forecast a decline of 35% of its profits.

The group also stressed that inflation of the yen gradually undermined the arguments for maintaining production in Japan.

Action Toyota ended down 2.42% to 3,220 yen.

The situation is more favorable for its rival Mitsubishi, which announced on Monday forecast a rise of 25% of its annual operating profit, thanks to a rebound in sales and production after the earthquake.

The group now expects an operating profit of 50 billion yen (433 million euros), while analysts on average expected 32.1 billion yen (278 million).

Title Mitsubishi ended the session unchanged at 94 yen.

The cigarette company Japan Tobacco, which has suffered a sharp decline in sales in April and May because of the damage to its plants and the subsequent decrease of its offer, sold 3.5% to 303,000 yen.

The electrician Kansai Electric Power has also fallen from 1.95% to 1,157 yen.

The second group of Japanese power generation had to ask its customers to reduce their consumption, causing the broker UFJ Morgan Stanley to cut its price target from 1900 to 1400 yen.

Yves de Chaisemartin should lose the leadership of Altran, the shareholders of the technology consulting company having sided with the largest shareholder, Altrafin Holdings, claiming his departure.

After a stormy meeting, they voted for the election to the board of directors of two new representatives of Altrafin Participations, Philip Hall and Monique Cohen, rejecting the appointment of three independent directors, as proposed by Yves de Chaisemartin.

A board was convened in the wake of the general meeting at which the holding company controlled by Apax Partners is expected to easily obtain the appointment of Philip Hall as CEO, replacing Yves de Chaisemartin.

The investment fund, which has the support of representatives of the two founders of the board of directors, has in fact now six votes out of ten against four out of eight in the previous configuration.

"Game Over", commented after the vote the current CEO of Altran, who refused to bow to calls for the resignation of Altrafin.

NO VERDICT APPEAL

The verdict of shareholders was no appeal in contrast to what could suggest the applause for Yves de Chaisemartin in the room: Phil Hall, Monique Cohen were elected with 91.52% and 83.42% of votes.

With a quorum at 62.61%, the balance of power firmly in favor of playing Altrafin Holdings which owns 19.2% of the capital and 31.2% of the voting rights of society.

At 46, Philip Hall, who spent eight years in consulting before leading international groups such as Vedior and Geoservices, unsurprisingly should take the lead Altran when the company is on the road to recovery.

"I proved in my career that I have made strong developments in the international (…) and I think that is a topic of particular interest that Altran," he said.

Former McKinsey and Accenture, but it will build a reputation in a sector where it has so far not had the opportunity to exercise.

The meeting, held under the supervision of a bailiff in the presence of a large police contingent, led to heated exchanges.

"You wanted me to leave as we do from a chicken thief," shouted Yves de Chaisemartin, accusing Apax Partners will take control of the board of directors.

Altran's boss has defended the record of his five years at the helm of the group, saying the group's activities focus on project management and control policy costs were paid off.

YVES DE CHAISEMARTIN DEFENDS HIS BALANCE

"The strategy worked," he said at the podium, recalling that the group had recorded a double-digit growth of its turnover in the first quarter.

"I can tell you, even if the official turnover of the group's second quarter will be announced at the end of August (…) we are largely in line with these figures, with this growth and it will even accelerated, "he said.

While acknowledging that some things "could have gone faster," he again denounced the methods used by Apax, confessing to have considered to resign for personal reasons.

"We could organize a smooth transition smoothly," he told representatives of Apax, who sat in the front row.

They have defended their decision to want to appoint a new CEO, regretting that their dispute with Yves de Chaisemartin has been focused on the media and judicial fields.

"Despite the tremendous efforts made by the company, it is clear that the results do not go," said Maurice Tchenio, founder of Apax he represents the Board of Altran.

He has set several priorities for Philip Hall: conduct a strategic review by country and by business to better focus human and financial resources, accelerate growth both internally and through acquisitions and improve profitability for the bear "at the best ".

"The goal we have is (…) Altran again become the undisputed leader," he said, recalling that Apax had invested 150 million euros in Altran since his arrival in the capital in 2008 .

At 3:20 p.m., the action of Altran yielded 0.25% to 5.283 euros.Since the beginning of the year, it jumped 62%.

Citigroup said Thursday an attack against computer networks, allowing hackers to access data on hundreds of thousands of cardholders.

According to Citigroup, access to such data for about 1% of its customers.The Financial Times wrote that the attack was discovered in May during a routine monitoring networks.

The hackers had access to customer names, account numbers and contacts, including e-mail, said the bank.

Other information, such as dates of birth, social security numbers and expiration dates and PINs of bank cards have not been compromised, however, assured Citigroup.

"We contact customers whose information has been affected.Citi has implemented improved procedures to prevent such events from happening again, "said the email spokesman Sean Kevelighan.

Many companies have been hit by cyber attacks lately, like Lockheed Martin, Sony, or Google.

Wall Street opened higher Tuesday, as foreshadowed the future.

The Dow Jones gained 0.4% to 12,138.17 minutes after opening. The Nasdaq Composite Index is 0.4% to 2713.08.

The S & P-500 is 0.45% at 1291.93. The index touched the day before a low of more than two months after pushing important technical thresholds.

The S & P 500 lost 5.5% since its peak reached in early May.Some investors anticipate an increase in volatility in the market and maybe even a downward movement before the stock market stabilizes.

Peter Cardillo (Avalon Partners) said that the threshold of 1,275, but will if pressed, he expects a new wave of releases.

The Exchange expects the speech on the economic situation that has to pass the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Tuesday. Officials from the central bank felt disappointing recent statistics and one of them suggested that this could push the institution to postpone its crisis.

Values, Microsoft takes 0.4% to 24.11 dollars.The computer giant announced on Monday evening at the E3 development project of its KINECTS, the motion sensor for its Xbox video game console, which it intends to make a tool to also influence the choice of television channels, of conduct research on the internet or working on platforms like YouTube.

Europe is undergoing the crisis but the pace of recovery could slow in coming quarters, said Monday the governor of the Banque de France Christian Noyer.

"The financial environment is favorable rates in the short and long term are at low levels and there is virtually no evidence of credit rationing," said the member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank during a conference in Helsinki.

"The pace of recovery could slow in coming quarters (…) our economies could still bear the scars of the crisis. The potential for growth could have been affected.The process of repairing balance sheets, which involves private and public, could also weigh on growth over the medium term, "he added.

Noyer also said that countries receiving assistance from the joint European Union and the International Monetary Fund had to carry through their austerity programs and that debt restructuring was not possible.

"Solutions of the type of debt restructuring is not possible," he said.

The ISM services index in the U.S. rose more than expected in May but its activity component has slightly decreased.

The ISM index stood at 54.6 in May after 52.8 in April. Analysts on average expected index at 54.0.

The component of the tertiary activity came in turn from 53.7 to 53.6 in April and against a consensus of 54.0. It is at its lowest since January 2010.

The sub-index of new business amounted to 56.8 from 52.7 the previous month and that employment has significantly increased from 51.9 to 54.0 in April.The prices paid component reached its lowest level since December, standing at 69.6 in May against 70.1 in April.

The threshold of 50 marks the difference between growth and contraction.

After publication of these figures, Wall Street has reduced its losses.

The Paris Bourse was down significantly in early trading Thursday in the wake of Wall Street fell sharply after the publication of indicators reinforcing concerns about the U.S. economy.

The degradation of the note of Greece by Moody's estimated 50% probability of failure of this country also affects the trend.

The meeting promises to be very active in this holiday in France for the Ascension.

Around 9:25, the CAC 40 index, which opened a bearish gap (gap between the lowest of the day and the highest of the day, or 3956.07 / 3937.00) lost 1.29% to 3913.82 .

No value of the index is in the green.

Alcatel-Lucent (-2.25%) shows the largest decrease in the CAC 40.

Financials BNP Paribas (-1.69%), AXA (-1.83%), leaded by the debt crisis of the euro area, and Total (-0.81%), hit by lower prices oil, are major contributors to the decline in the index.

London and Frankfurt lost 1.04% 1.21%. Of the European indices, the EuroStoxx 50 yields 1.14% and 0.9% Eurofirst 300.

The euro traded around 1.4372 dollars against 1.4342 on Wednesday's announcement by Moody's having precipitated as $ 1.44.

A barrel of U.S. light crude oil exceeds 50 cents 99.79 dollars.