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Industrial production in France rose 0.3% in February, thanks to the consumption of gas and electricity induced by the cold wave.

Industrial production in France rose slightly by 0.3% in February, thanks to the consumption of gas and electricity induced by the cold wave, is now on the same rate as in January (0.2%, revised), announced Tuesday the National Institute of Statistics (INSEE). In the manufacturing industry alone, which excludes mining and construction, production was down sharply by 1.2% over one month, after a slight increase of 0.2% in January, said INSEE in a statement.

Over the last three months, production was down 1.1% in manufacturing and 0.5% in the entire industry. Over this period, production was down in the "other industrial products" (-1.2%), in the agricultural and food industries (-0.8%) and transport equipment (-0.7%) . The refining business suffers from maintenance outages, with a decline of 7.2%. Manufacturing production for the last three months has significantly decline (-1.6%) compared to the same three months last year. Over the same period, production has fallen sharply in the "other industries" (-2.0%), transport equipment (-2.7%), as well as in electrical, electronic, computer and machinery ( -0.4%).

She also declined sharply in the refining (-13.1%), mainly because of the shutdown of the refinery in Little Crown, according to INSEE. For February alone, refining is down 5.1% after a 12.0% drop in January. The production also decreases in the rubber, plastic and non-metallic minerals because of the cold wave (-6.7%), metallurgy and metal products (-1.7%), chemicals (-1.7%) textiles, clothing, leather and footwear (-1.5%). However it increases by 2.1% in "other manufacturing". It was down in electrical equipment (-4.3%), computer products, electronic and optical products (-2.3%) and remained stable in machinery and equipment not elsewhere classified (0.0%). It remains stable in the other transport equipment (-0.1%) and automotive (0.1%).

The Tokyo Stock Exchange ended down nearly 1.5% Monday, accusing its fifth consecutive session of decline under the impact of both the employment figures for the month of March in the United States considered to be disappointing and the strong yen.

The Nikkei lost 1.47% or 142.19 points to 9,546.26 and the Topix broader, yielded 12.02 points (-1.46%) to 813.69 .

The U.S. economy created far fewer jobs than expected in March, which should extend the debate on the need for the Fed to adopt new measures to support growth, although the unemployment rate to 8.2%, is at its lowest for three years. 

Since April 2, the Nikkei fell more than 5% and, with five sessions of decline in a row, the index experienced its longest run down since November.

That said, thanks to the good performance of financial stocks and those related to exports, the Nikkei had jumped more than 19% over the three months January to March, its best performance for a first quarter in 24 years.

"This is a temporary adjustment. We had perhaps gone too far, too fast, "said Naomi Fink as, technical analyst at Jefferies The

. Trading volume was very narrow due to the closure of most Western stock markets due to Easter Monday

.. ……. The dollar fell to a low of one month against the yen, a development that has resulted in a decline in export values, such as Honda (-2.43 %), Nissan (-3.39%) or TDK (-1.69%)

.

Deficit to around 6.4 billion euros in February, the balance of foreign trade has suffered because of the cold spell which caused an increase in energy purchases. Customs estimate that exports have benefited from "buoyant manufacturing sales".

The trade deficit widened substantially France in February compared with the previous month, reaching 6.398 billion euros, Customs said Friday. "In February, the surge in imports is partly attributable to energy purchases related to the cold wave, which leads to relativize the rising deficit to -6.398 billion euros, after -5593000000 in January," said Customs in a statement.  

"The cold wave that hit France and implementation of maintenance work on three French refineries led to a sharp surge in energy supply (electricity and refined petroleum products)", said the Customs. Imports amounted to 43.553 billion euros and exports 37.155 billion when adjusted for seasonal variations and the number of working days.

Exports have benefited from "buoyant manufacturing sales, while those of agricultural products and military equipment contract sharply again," commented Customs. Exports of transport equipment have found "their best", due to large supplies of satellites and a recovery in exports of motor vehicles.  

Dynamic exports to Russia and the Middle East

Customs also noted "the good performance of electronic and electrical equipment and metal products (oil and nuclear industries)." By region, exports remained nearly stable to the countries of the European Union but have been "particularly strong" to Europe outside the EU (deliveries of parts of satellites to Russia) and the Near and Middle East (aeronautics and industrial equipment). In contrast, sales to America have been reduced (fuel, after a peak in January, and chemicals).

Import side, in addition to the surge in purchases of energy products, Customs stressed that "the level of aircraft acquisitions to Germany is also occasionally very high." "Import growth also reflects the continued strength of metals purchases, pharmaceuticals, industrial machinery, household appliances and electrical products and automotive industry," the statement said.

Regions, in February, increased purchases from the EU has accelerated: from Germany for the aerospace, Spain, Belgium and Sweden for energy products. Imports also increased since the rest of Europe (Switzerland for electricity and the pharmacy, Russia for natural hydrocarbons and refined products), but shrank from the Middle East. The deficit of 12 months completed end of February stood at 70.051 billion euros. The negative balance record set by France in 2011 was also again revised up to 70.437 billion, after a first revision to 70.104 billion euros on 8 March.

American values ​​have increased their decline Wednesday in the second closing in the red as investors begin to consider the prospect of a world stock market would no longer be supported by programs Recovery of central banks.

The Dow Jones has sold 0.95% or 124.80 points to 13,074.75 points. The Standard & Poor's, wider, yielded 1.02% (14.42 points) to 1,398.96 points while the Nasdaq composite fell back to 1.46% (45.48 points) at point

3068.09

This decline comes despite better than expected figures for employment in the private sector. According to ADP monthly survey, the private sector created 209,000 jobs in March in the U.S., against 200,000 expected.

But what continues to attract the attention of investors is that, in the last monetary policy meeting of the Federal Reserve of the United States, only two members its monetary policy committee felt that other measures could be necessary if the economy weakened or if inflation remained at a low level during a pe ; prolonged period. 

Support measures implemented by the U.S. central bank was the main catalyst for a jump of 30% recorded by the S & P 500 since October, although improving conditions in the United States, as reflected by the indicators, also played.

A REASON TO LOWER

"The biggest support for the economy and financial markets for the past two years has been the (financial) support and without it, you always wonder if the economy can stand by themselves, "said Bruce Bittles, head of investment policy at Robert W. Baird & Co.

Some investors, such as Cummins Catherwood, in Boenning & Scattergood, however, believe that we should not over-interpret the decline. He stressed that the market needs a reason to consolidate after its sharp rise and the bottom panel, even if not very exciting, is at least solid.

Values, General Electric, Heavyweight Dow Jones fell 1.1% to 19.74 dollars. Moody's downgraded the rating of Aa2 to Aa3 conglomerate. The note of its financial subsidiary, GE Capital, has also been lowered a notch.

Sandisk has fallen by over 11% to 44.51 dollars. The manufacturer of flash memory has reduced its forecast for sales in the first quarter, citing lower demand than expected from the manufacturers of mobile handsets and pricing conditions unfavorable.

McDonald's ended down 1.9% to 97.48 dollars. Goldman Sachs has released the value of its conviction buy list and lowered its price target to $ 110.

Side increases, AIG ended with a gain of 5.3% to 32.52 dollars. According to CNBC, AIG could launch in the second quarter IPO of the subsidiary ILFC aircraft leasing Holdings.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange ended down on Tuesday, causing the yen to profit taking on the values ​​that were well mounted exporting since January.

The Nikkei ended down 0.59% or 59.48 points, to 10,050.39 points while the Topix retreated in the same proportions (-5.03 points) to 851.02 Points .

The dollar is trading around 81.89 yen after three weeks of low points touched 81.55 yen on trading platform EBS in early trading.

Toyota, which has won over 37% since the beginning of the year, has limited its decline to 0.28%, while Sony has lost 0.58%. Its gain since the beginning of the year exceeds 20%.

The government deficit in France was equivalent to 5.2% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2011, writes Les Echos Thursday on their website.

The first estimate of the deficit is to be published by INSEE Friday morning.

The objective of the Finance Act was 5.7% and the government indicated it could be 5.3%.

Asked by Reuters, the Budget Ministry did not wish to comment.

The government and the two main candidates in the presidential election, the socialist Francois Hollande and Past President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged to reduce the deficit (which includes State, local and social security) to 4.5% of GDP at end 2012 and 3% in late 2013.

The decision of E. ON to forego building new nuclear plants in Britain does not mean that the company turns its back on the entire value chain, said Friday the meadow , chairman of the Executive Group utilities.

"This is not a rejection of nuclear energy, just a decision on how we are investing," said Johannes Teyssen in an interview published Friday by the German newspaper Handelsblatt.

RWE and E.ON announced on Thursday to abandon their plan of 18 billion euros to build new nuclear plants in the UK, which could undermine the objective of London for renewal of the reactor pool. 

Both groups have justified this decision by the choice of Germany to break with nuclear energy, high operating costs of their joint venture and the dice Horizon ; lais required by the construction of new nuclear plants.

E.ON also said Thursday it would continue its project to build a nuclear reactor in Finland through the consortium Fennovoima, in which the German group owns 34% through its Finnish subsidiary.

BNP Paribas and Societe Generale Wednesday reaffirmed their commitment to carry through their plan to reduce balance sheet.

Speaking at a conference organized by Morgan Stanley in London, Jean-Laurent Bonnafe, the CEO of BNP Paribas, has announced that the bank would be able to completed by the end of her program initiated in the second half of 2011, at the height of the debt crisis in the euro area.

He recalled that the group had given the end of February to the U.S. bank Wells Fargo loan portfolio to oil companies and sold in early March a 28 , 7% in the property company Klépierre. 

"Our number one priority remains the implementation of our plan to reduce balance (…) In all, we have already achieved 70% of the program," said ; John Lawrence Bonnafé.

BNP Paribas announced in September will reduce by 10% the size of its balance sheet by the end of 2012. In late 2011, its assets amounted to 1.965 billion euros against 1.998 billion at end-2010.

Speaking at the same conference, the CEO of Société Générale Frédéric Oudéaa assured that SocGen, whose market capitalization has shrunk by half last year, was also determined to achieve the reduction of its balance sheet.

"The deleveraging will continue," said Frederic Oudéa. "We have clear objectives."

During the fourth quarter of 2011, SocGen sold for 10 billion euros in assets, but analysts still expect the bank's most significant disposals to strengthen its solvency.

"BNP CLEARLY IN ADVANCE"

"On the 'deleveraging' (reducing balance, Ed), BNP Paribas is clearly ahead, with an impact on NLP ('profit and loss', Ed) quite limited. It's rather good news, "said Alex Koagne, an analyst at Natixis

." However, the Company General ; eral, I think they come to do their 'deleveraging' on the sale of loans but they are now waiting on disposal of business units, "he says ……

… "It's been several months since they announced they would sell assets and there was still nothing yet."

To strengthen their financial strength undermined by the crisis in the euro area and alleviate tensions in interbank liquidity, European banks have also begun to re reduce and diversify their funding sources and reduce their financing needs

. Their difficulties in dollar funding has also forced the European Central Bank has injected over $ 1.000 billion euros of liquidity to three years (LTRO) in the European banking system.

BNP Paribas said the bank had reached since the beginning of the year 60% of its funding needs for 2012, raising 12 billion euros between January 1 and March 22.

Societe Generale, for its part said it has raised 7.6 billion euros of debt since the beginning of the year, with a maturity average of 6.3 years.

SocGen is continuing its efforts to restructure its BFI, said its CEO. This table and a reduction of 50 to 60 billion euros of liquidity needs by 2013 in these activities.

In exchange, like most European banking stocks, securities of French banks have closed in the red Wednesday because of investor concerns about growth in the U.S. and the budgetary situation of Spain.

In Paris, BNP Paribas and Societe Generale ended the session down 1.3% and 2.89% respectively. Credit Agricole – who canceled his participation at the London conference – sold 2.82%. The European banking index ended down 1.45%.

The Spanish bank La Caixa confirmed Monday its intention to acquire its rival Banca Civica through its listed subsidiary CaixaBank to give birth to the first Spanish bank to Santander and BBVA.

CaixaBank offers the equivalent of 1.97 euro per share Banca Civica via a public exchange offer (the offer) that values ​​the target at 980 million euros.

A second wave of consolidation is underway in the Spanish banking sector. This is for banks to rebuild capital after losses from the bursting of the speculative real estate bubble in late 2007.

With total assets of 285 billion euros, CaixaBank is about four times larger than the Civic.

The shareholders of Banca Civica CaixaBank will receive five shares for every eight shares held. This represents a discount of 11% over the closing price Friday of Banca Civica. Quotations CaixaBank and Banca Civica were suspended Monday before the markets open.

The banks hope to have the approval of their shareholders by June 30.

Sources close to CaixaBank, it is not excluded that the institution has used a capital increase to finance its acquisition.

The government of Mariano Rajoy wants to reduce the number of banking groups to ten when they were over 40 before the crisis.

The new alignment will bring more difficult to find a partner for Bankia, particularly exposed to real estate, say observers.

Caixa said in a statement it would maintain its dividend to 0.231 euros per share in 2012.

Sales of new homes fell again in February in the United States. The lack of foreclosures flooding the housing market of goods at bargain prices. Average prices of back nine, however.

The housing market is still recovering from nine United States. Sales of new single in February fell for the second consecutive month, according to figures released Friday by the Washington Department of Commerce. They fell 1.6% from January, seasonally adjusted data, to 313,000 annualized transactions. He had declined by 5.4% the previous month (revised up).

Sales of new single are depressed for several years in the United States. Over the whole of 2011, sales fell 5.3%. The government has identified this year that 306,000 sales, is the lowest number ever recorded in its annals, dating back to January 1963. Sales of new homes suffer from competition caused by the high number of foreclosures caused by the crisis, resulting in the housing market an influx of goods sold at bargain prices detrimental to developers.

Despite the decline in sales, the average transaction price in February rose 2.2% on month and 1.8% yoy, to $ 267,700 dollars.

The ministry said there were 150,000 new homes for sale in the U.S. in late February, as much as a month earlier when the supply of such goods had fallen to its lowest level since January 1963 at least.