US & World News

European shares were down in early trade Friday, the pressure on interest rates fueling fears that some fragile countries in the euro zone no longer be able to refinance at an affordable cost.

At 9:03, Paris passed under the 3000 points and lost 0.83% to 2985.19 points.

At the same moent, London lost 0.95%, Frankfurt and Milan 0.83% 0.73%. The Euro Stoxx 50 index of the principal values ​​of the euro gave up 0.69%.

The Spanish 10-year rate rose above 7% (7.11%) and Italy's is 6.94% while the German Bund yield the same maturity is around 1.87% and that of the French OAT around 3.6%.

France announced Thursday it had called for an investigation to the European financial markets and the AMF after transmission error by Standard & Poor's a message on its sovereign rating.

The Minister of Finance, Baroin said he asked regulators to investigate the causes and possible consequences of the mistake, which he described as "quite shocking rumor of information that do not match any foundation".

"We will not leave any negative message through. It was a strategy, we have an appointment in terms of deficits that is fixed.It will not change one iota, "he said in Lyon on the sidelines of a conference of the economy.

Standard & Poor's has sent a message to some clients who might suggest that the rating of France had been changed.

The rating agency said in a statement that following a technical error, a message was automatically sent to some subscribers suggesting that the credit rating of France had been changed.

"This is not the case notes of the French Republic are AAA/A-1 + with a stable outlook, and this incident is not related to any monitoring activity notes," she said. "We are investigating to determine the cause of this error."

BASF, the world leader in chemistry in terms of sales, announced Thursday a quarterly profit above expectations, but warned that its growth was slowing, clients sell their stocks.

"BASF's customers are more cautious, reduce inventory and postpone some of their orders in hopes of a possible drop in prices," explains the German group said in a statement.

Operating profit (EBIT) fell 11.3% to 1.96 billion euros, while analysts polled by Reuters anticipate an average of 1.89 billion euros.

The quarterly revenue was up 11.6% to 17.6 billion euros, according to consensus.

BASF has confirmed that the CAand EBIT adjusted for taxes on oil would experience a significant increase this year.

"However, growth slowed further over the first half of 2011. We expect this trend to continue in the fourth quarter," warns the group.

Europe is moving towards an agreement on the sovereign debt crisis but "banks must now accept the necessary sacrifices," said Jean-Pierre Jouyet, the president of the Financial Markets Authority, in an interview published Tuesday by The Tribune.

"A lot of the success of the second meeting of the Eurozone is in their hands," he adds.

Finance ministers from the euro area opened Friday six days of intense negotiations, punctuated by an EU summit Sunday to a high of the euro area, where the outcome expected Wednesday is considered crucial for the future of the single currency.

For reassurance on the risks of contagion, "the markets want a political Europe even stronger. A battle will hopefully gained Wednesday, but not the war.It will be played on fiscal consolidation and real political integration, "the president of the AMF.

He said Germany is now "the business model and budget the most efficient in Europe."

Jean-Pierre Jouyet also known as the European Commissioner for Internal Market Michel Barnier to go further in reforming financial markets.

"Today there is an excess of power of financial markets on policy choices. It is time to regain control in the regulation of markets," said he.

Nicolas Sarkozy left Paris Wednesday to Frankfurt where he is involved with the German Chancellor to work meeting for the summit of the euro area expected Sunday. President Nicolas Sarkozy meets with German Chancellor Angela Merkel Tuesday, August 16 at the Elysee Palace (both here in Berlin July 20, 2011)

Nicolas Sarkozy left Paris Wednesday to Frankfurt where he is involved with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a meeting to advance the conclusion of an agreement on the future of the euro area before the EU summit scheduled for Sunday, announced the Elysee.The President of the European Central Bank (ECB) Jean-Claude Trichet, his successor Mario Draghi, the Presidents Council and the Commission of the European Union (EU), Herman Van Rompuy and José Manuel Barroso, the Executive Director of the IMF Christine Lagarde, the finance ministers and French and German, Baroin and Wolfgang Schäuble, also participate in this "informal meeting" added the source.

All these personalities gathered in Frankfurt for a ceremony in honor of Mr. Trichet, who must leave office at the head of the ECB at the end of October. "No statement is expected at the end of this working meeting," also said the French presidency.At a luncheon at the Elysee Palace with the centrist deputies, the president announced he was ready to move quickly in Germany in order to hasten the conclusion of an agreement in anticipation of EU summits and the euro area scheduled Sunday.

France hopes that the EFSF can be turned into a real bank, such that it can refinance directly with the ECB. The ECB and Germany are opposed to such provisions, which require amendment of the European treaties.Germany stands in contrast the idea of ​​a mechanism to ensure EFSF some of the bonds of troubled countries, to multiply by "leverage" its lending capacity, currently $ 440 billion euros, without the states have to increase their contributions.

First limited to Greece, the debt crisis is now spreading to other countries in the euro area and its banks. Spain has suffered a further reduction of its sovereign rating for the third time in less than two weeks, while Greece was paralyzed by a general strike. At a meeting with Merkel in Berlin on October 9, Sarkozy had promised "sustainable solutions, comprehensive and fast" to resolve the serious crisis in the euro area, in any case before the G20 summit scheduled in Cannes on November 3 and 4.

Europe should recapitalize its banks on an individual basis and not applied uniformly to all measures in the industry, said Tuesday the German BDB banking association.

"It would be absurd to book the same treatment to all banks," said Michael Kemmer, CEO of the BDB, in an interview on ARD television channel.

If the recapitalization is needed, they must be implemented in the right tempo, he added.

"First, banks themselves must make use of capital markets, although it is very difficult if not impossible, right now," said Michael Kemmer.

"Then, each country must see if we recapitalize banks and only if it is unable to do that EFSF should intervene," he added, referring to the European Stability Financial.

France and Germany have given themselves until the end of October to overcome many obstacles on the recapitalization of banks, the euro and its sickest member, Greece, and on European Governance, at where the sovereign debt crisis has put down the bank Dexia.

German banks, which have increased their level of capital in recent months, are stable and doing well, said Michael Kemmer.

He added that European leaders should stick to the agreement July 21 on Greece, which provides that private creditors pass a discount of 21% on Greek bond holdings.

Many experts believe that this level of discount ("haircut") is insufficient, forcing banks to take further writedowns in the third quarter.

Deutsche Bank, one of the most important members of the BDB with Commerzbank, said late September that the discount that private investors have agreed to take on Greek sovereign debt in the second bailout of Greece could be greater than 21% retained.

Last week, the German IDW auditors are said German banks could follow the example of Deutsche Bank in the third quarter by re-evaluating their market prices Greek bonds.

The trade deficit the U.S. has grown against all odds in June to its highest level since October 2008, due to a decline in exports and imports indicate a slowdown in global demand, according to figures released Thursday by Commerce.

The trade balance posted a deficit of 53.07 billion dollars, while the market expected it to be reduced to 48 billion.

In May, the deficit had risen to 50.83 billion (50.23 billion in the first estimate).

Exports fell 2.3% against -0.5% in May, faster than imports (-0.8% after +2.9% in May).

The U.S. economy created more jobs than expected in July and the unemployment rate fell slightly, according to official statistics released Friday.

Last month, 117,000 non-agricultural jobs were created, according to the Labor Department.

Economists on average had forecast 85,000 jobs created.

Statistics disappointing June (18,000 births) was revised to 46,000.That of May was also revised upwards from 25,000 initially to 53,000.

Overall, the private sector has created 154,000 jobs, against 115,000 expected.

The unemployment rate retreated slightly to 9.1%, while analysts expected the same from one month to the other at 9.2%.

In July, 24,000 manufacturing jobs were created, while 11,000 were expected.

The public sector has in turn eliminated 37,000 jobs, after having destroyed 39,000 in June.

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.