US & World News

Chevron, the second largest U.S. oil company, reported Friday a profit up sharply from April to June, supported by strong crude prices and improved refining margins, which offset the decline in production.

Earnings increased to $ 7.7 billion, or $ 3.85 per share, against 5.4 billion, or $ 2.70 per share a year earlier.

The turnover has meanwhile increased by 30% to register $ 69 billion.

The Thomson Reuters consensus I / B / E / S expected EPS of 3.56 dollars and sales of 71.58 billion dollars.

Barrels of oil equivalent per day, production stood at 2.69 million, compared with 2.75 million products a year earlier.

Chevron set a target to produce an average 2.79 million barrels of oil equivalent in fiscal 2011. These forecasts assumed that the courses would be lower.

French rival Total, for its part announced Friday the results down in the second quarter, affected by maintenance operations and political unrest in Libya, but said his confidence for the second half.

The day before, Exxon Mobil posted a profit below expectations, affected by an activity lower than expected in the refinery.

The title Chevron dropped by around 0.7% by 1430 GMT.

Danone on Thursday posted first-half results up record results thanks to its water division, and affirmed all its annual targets despite an environment that remains challenging.

The action of giant agribusiness, the first major global industry to publish its interim results, however, decline, affected by lower volumes in the fresh dairy products linked to the sharp rise in prices.

Around 24:30, the title lost 2.2% to 49.55 euros while the European sector index yielded 0.43% and the CAC 40 1.58%.The action Danone gained 5.5% since the beginning of the year while the sector index is stable.

"The market punishes the wrong way lower volumes in the fresh dairy products," said Pierre Tegner, Oddo Securities, noting the second quarter, Danone has broken the record he had established the first in terms of organic growth and that the margin is higher than expected.

The analyst also welcomes "good control" of Danone in managing its costs.

In 2011, Danone still expects an increase in comparable data, from 6% to 8% in sales and about 20 basis points to its current operating margin.

Asia has 21% in Q2

The group expects an increase in total costs for raw materials and packaging from 6% to 9% on average in 2011, with growth strongest in the first half due to the bases of comparison with 2010.

Thanks to major efforts to improve productivity, the company, whose brands range from yogurt Actimel Evian waters, claims to have protected its margins (-23 bps), in line with its objectives.

During a conference call, Chief Financial Officer Pierre-Andre Terisse said that most of the price increases had been passed in the first half, during which the average increase was 2%.

He estimated that prices of raw materials had probably reached their "peak" in the first half.

Danone is on track to achieve its goal of 500 million in productivity gains in 2011 as he made half way in the first half, he said.

The group, which last year put his hand on Unimilk, the No. 2 Russian dairy products, ensures that their venture is the appointment of its objectives and that the integration teams will be finalized in late 2011.

Pierre-André Terisse said that in 2011 the group would focus on improving margins Unimilk and not its volume.

Current operating income rose 6.9% like in the first half, to 1.396 million euros (Thomson Reuters consensus I / B / E / S 1384.2 million), while net income rose 3.4% to 870 million (consensus of 894 million).

Turnover amounted to 9.728 million (+8.7% like), against a consensus of 9,740.8 million (+8.7% on a comparable basis).

In the second quarter, the division "Water" has seen its sales jump by 18.9% against 5.5% in the "dairy fresh" where volumes were down 0.2%.

In the "child nutrition" the increase was 9.6% and 8.7% in the "medical nutrition."

During this period, sales of Danone rose 20.8% in Asia, against a gain of just 4.2% in Europe.

Ford reported Tuesday a better than expected for the second quarter.

Excluding items, earnings per share amounted to 65 cents against 68 cents a year ago. Analysts on average had forecast on this basis EPS of 60 cents, according to the consensus established by Thomson Reuters I / B / E / S.

In pre-market action is gaining 3.6% to 13.65 dollars.

Turnover was up 13% to $ 35.5 billion.The total net profit stood at 2.4 billion, or 59 cents a share, against 201 million in the second quarter 2010 (61 cents per share).

Now Ford shows eight consecutive quarters after accusing recipients of $ 30 billion in cumulative losses from 2006 to 2008, during which time the manufacturer had reduced its workforce, sold unprofitable brands and revamped its line overloaded and other large 4×4 pick- up.

The gold price reached a new record Monday in response to stalled negotiations on the U.S. debt, a few days of the date by which Washington could face a default situation.

The spot price of gold, which hit a peak at 1622.49 dollars an ounce, was up 1.1% to 1,615.74 dollars per ounce thereafter.

The forward price for August delivery gained 16.80 dollars to 1618.30 dollars an ounce, after reaching 1624.30 dollars.

The price of gold, which has reaped record during the last five quarters, is expected at the end of the week's biggest monthly increase since April.

The elected Democrats and Republicans in Congress have failed to agree on a compromise on how to achieve an increase in the ceiling of the debt and decided to work separately on separate projects.

While most investors believe in the conclusion of an agreement, the dollar always yields the field, as well as long-term U.S. bonds, in favor of gold.

"There are ultimately two choices: either you have a monetization of debt, a move towards fiscal consolidation (…). Before we had the last, the market will anticipate the first. It's just an excellent ad for the gold market, "said Nic Brown, an analyst at Natixis.

The major European stock markets closed Friday up, welcoming the new plan of aid to Greece, even if the solution found yesterday by European leaders do not mean the end of the crisis.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index closed up 0.52% at 1108.90.

At the Paris Bourse, the CAC 40 was 0.68% (25.95 points) to 3842.70 points.For the week, the index gained 3.12% and returns to the green on his performance since the beginning of the year (1%).

In Frankfurt the Dax finished 0.50% progress to 7326.39 points, while the FTSE in London has been 0.60% to 5935.02.

Despite significant gains banks Greek, European financial stocks have returned mid-afternoon to end the trading session in negative territory as investors preferred to take profits before the weekend on fears related to the execution of Greek aid plan.

Stoxx index of bank stocks in Europe dropped 0.18% against a gain of 0.8% at midday.

UniCredit has lost 4.56%, 2.83% Intesa Sanpaolo, Societe Generale and BNP Paribas 0.41% 0.21%, compared to clinching more than 1% in mid-session.

The default situation declared by the rating agencies in Greece could also have consequences difficult to predict.The agency Fitch Ratings has already announced it will place the issuer credit rating of Greece in partial default on remand.

The euro meanwhile back on the foreign exchange market after surging the day before at a high of 1.4440 dollars in two weeks, investors dissecting the details of the plan of aid to Greece to assess its ability to prevent a contagion of debt to other countries using the euro.

German Bunds are in turn less desirable than bonds Greek, Irish and Portuguese, which rose in response to the new plan to help Greece.

The yields of the Greek loan to 10 years have gone below 15%, boosting their decline started the day before.Yields paper Greek neighborhood of two years now 28.2%, while they still exceeded 40% at the eve of the euro area.

Paris Plages is investing in one month the banks of the Seine, as of July 21. For its 10th edition, the Paris event was put on the excess. Key figures in the images.ate "> 9 / 13

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A group of six U.S. senators, Democrat and Republican, introduced Tuesday a new plan for deficit reduction in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. Capitol

A group of six U.S. senators, Democrats and Republicans, called the "gang of six" presented Tuesday in closed session before other elected a new plan to try to find a solution to the crisis related to raising the debt ceiling . According to a source familiar with the matter, the plan includes spending cuts of 3600-3700 billion over 10 years. It would include increased revenues from the federal government, not by raising taxes – something the Republicans are viscerally opposed – but by reforming the tax system. The same source, the proposal also attacked the Medicare (health insurance for the elderly), dear to the Democrats.

The new plan was presented to fifty elected as one of six senators, Republican Tom Coburn, who had left the group in May announced his return Tuesday. The group is also composed of Democrats Kent Conrad, Mark Warner, Richard Durbin and Republican Saxby Chambliss and Mike Crapo. The plan of the "Gang of Six" is inspired by findings made in 2010, a special parliamentary committee. The recommendations of the commission, established by U.S. President Barack Obama, have never been approved in Congress. The commission proposed a reduction of 4,000 billion over 10 years, with cuts in social programs.

According to Senator Conrad, the reaction of elected officials present at the presentation Tuesday morning was "extremely positive"."We promised to come back and listen to their reactions over the next 24 hours and decide what to do," he told reporters. Side House, elected officials were preparing to vote Tuesday on the latest Republican proposal, entitled "Reduce, cap, balance." This radical plan of budget cuts, which contains an amendment to the Constitution for a budget to "balance" should not get through the Senate.

The creation of a European rating agency, may reduce the influence of Standard & Poor's, Moody's and Fitch, would cost about 300 million euros, the German monthly Capital reported in an article to be published Thursday.

The magazine quotes about Markus Krall, a member of the consulting firm Roland Berger, who is campaigning to governments and EU companies to collect the necessary support to launch a new credit rating agency.

"By the end of 2011, we formed a consortium of more than 25 participants, and each will invest 10 million euros," said Markus Krall in an article in Capital.

The magazine said that the new agency would charge its credit ratings to companies three times less than the three main existing agencies, and that the costs would be settled not by the issuers of debt, but by investors.

Last week, Handelsblatt reported that Rainer Brüderle, leader of the parliamentary group of ruling Liberal Democratic Party (FDP), proposed to found a new rating agency, arguing, according to the German newspaper, implicitly initiative Roland Berger.

In addition, three sources familiar with the situation told Reuters that wealthy German families were ready to support another project, that of creating a rating agency based in Switzerland, in order to ensure greater political independence.

The new agency would be content at first to note the credit companies, the sources said.

Consequence of the new wiretapping scandal, Rebekah Brooks resigned from his position as CEO of News International, British subsidiary of News Corp., said Friday the group of Rupert Murdoch, that weakens the case for both sides of the Atlantic.

The Director of the UK arm of News Corp, which is 43 years old, in turn pays the price of illegal wiretapping scandal practiced by News of the World, the weekly tabloid that the ultimate issue was published Sunday.

US-Australian tycoon media, which has already had to abandon its proposed acquisition of the total BSkyB satellite platform, has nevertheless tried to protect her in the storm, to the point of presenting it as his first priority when he arrived Sunday last in London in an attempt to extinguish the fire.

But the situation became untenable: Brooks, considered one of his closest advisors and protected, was editor of News of the World were made when practices denounced the most serious since the beginning of the scandal.

Many journalists who have suddenly lost their jobs due to the closure of NoW claim that the decision to end their week was only intended to protect Brooks.

In the political class, several elected officials, the majority and the opposition demanded his departure. Even the Prime Minister, David Cameron, estimated this week that his resignation was justified."He thinks he is the right decision," responded his spokesman after the announcement of the departure of Brooks.

Friend of the former executive director and her husband, the head of government is itself in trouble in this case to be hired as director of its communication adviser at Downing Street and a former editor of News of the World, Andy Coulson, who has since resigned and been prosecuted.

"WE apologize to the nation"

"My desire to remain on deck has made me a central point in the debate.This diverts the attention to this honest effort we made to solve the problems of the past, "writes Rebekah Brooks in a message to employees of News International.

"Therefore, I resigned to Rupert Murdoch and James," she says before expressing "a deep sense of responsibility towards the people we encountered."

Rebekah Brooks, who spent more than twenty years in the Murdoch press group, will be replaced by Tom Mockridge, who served as CEO of Sky Italia.

"I think Tom is the best person to know the company a bright future," said James Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch's son who runs News Corp's activities outside the United States.

"We apologize to the nation for what happened," he also noted the son Murdoch.

The scandal involves accusations of piracy, by News of the World and with the help of private investigators, telephone messaging of thousands of people – the protagonists of news items, celebrities, relatives of soldiers killed in Afghanistan and even Perhaps, the police officials – and bribing police to get scoops.

The investigation began in 2005 with the publication in the News of the World of an article on a knee injury of Prince William.The royal family had then suspected of wiretapping and the police investigation had resulted in the imposition of prison sentences in January 2007, the correspondent in charge of the NoW royal events and a private investigator.

But new revelations have revived the case, which also affects the United States, where the Murdoch group, listed on Wall Street, is located (it has such as Fox, the Wall Street Journal and the tabloid New York Post) .

The FBI said Thursday it was investigating possible hacking of telephone messaging victims of the September 11 attacks.

The Paris Bourse falling off again in early trade Thursday, the rating agencies have struck again sovereign debt, and this time, on both sides of the Atlantic.

Around 9:15, the CAC 40 index lost 0.79% to 3763.27 points at the start of the day a national holiday in France that could be very active, stakeholders who have opted for a long weekend.

Moody's warned late Wednesday it may lower the rating of "Aaa" – the best – the United States if President Obama and the Republican opposition failed to agree on raising the federal debt ceiling to time wanted to avoid a default.Discussions between the President and the Republican leaders have been strained Wednesday, and do not seem on the verge of success.

Fitch, for its part, S & P as a month ago, degraded to "CCC" the note of Greece.

The banking and technology are among the largest declines the CAC 40, while Lafarge, which has entered the active phase of sale of its gypsum in Europe and South America, is the only value of the CAC 40 in green (1.69%).

Alcatel-Lucent (-2.44%) and Capgemini (-2.0%) recorded the largest declines in the index.

Company lost 0.75%, 0.49% Credit Agricole and BNP Paribas 0.2% after opening down more than 1.5%.

London was down 0.58% from 0.32% and Frankfurt.