US & World News

Standard & Poor's on Tuesday cut score of 15 large banking groups, mainly in Europe and the United States as a result of a major review of its rating criteria.

In total, the U.S. agency has reviewed the status of 37 major global banks. In particular, it confirmed the notes of BNP Paribas and Societe Generale."The lowering of S & P both on European and U.S. banks has undermined confidence in the markets," said Terry Pratt, IG Markets.

"This decision has overshadowed the progress made in Brussels on the issue of scaling the EFSF."

Another analyst, Guy Lebas of Janney Montgomery Scott, said that these banks will see their funding costs rise.

This month, officials from S & P indicated that they would gradually announce the ratings updated for more than 750 banking companies in the world, starting with the principal. New announcements are expected in the coming weeks.

For large banks, the rating adjustments are larger than S & P has provided for the entire industry.

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The economic downturn continued in September in the major economies, particularly Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy and Brazil, show OECD leading indicators published Monday.

Declined for the sixth consecutive month, the leading indicators are below the 100 – which distinguishes the increase in lower activity – in most countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Japan, the United States and Russia are the only three countries where the leading indicators remain above that level.

The CLI for the OECD area as a whole declined to 100.4 in September from 100.9 in August to 101.4 in July.

The G7 folds 100.6 after 101.1.

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.

The global gathering of outraged this weekend has not gathered the crowds in France. The political context partly explains this failure. The "outraged" Place de la Bastille, May 10, 2011.

The numbers speak for themselves: 50,000 outraged gathered this weekend in Lisbon, 6000 in Frankfurt, 5000 in New York and … no more than a thousand in Paris. The movement which started on the Puerta del Sol square in Madrid to extend to many countries never really took off in the hexagon.But why mobilization is struggling to develop in France, whereas it is a French, Stéphane Hessel, who inspired the movement with his book "Unworthy you"? Several answers.

France is less badly off than its neighbors

"Here we do not have a gun to his head like the Greeks may have with their crisis and the Spanish with their real estate market," said Julien Bayou, co-founder of the collective generation and precarious present in the meetings of the "outraged" French held each week. He said the crisis is felt in France, but not the same as in some countries. It is also the opinion of Robi Morder, Chairman of the studies and research on student movements (germ). "Many young people, especially graduates can expect to enter the world of work without going through the uncertainty," said he in the daily La Croix."It is more complicated in southern Europe, where unemployment is higher among graduates than non-graduates," says researcher Monique Dagnaud to Liberation. The rate of youth unemployment to 45% in Spain when he was 23% in France.

Unfavorable political context

The arrival of the next presidential captures media attention for weeks, and the recent Socialist primary did not help. This reduces the echo can have the movement in France. In addition, it is optimistic about the possible alternatives that demobilizing troops, said Julien Bayou. "In Spain, Greece or even the United States, we have leaders that could be called the left in power. And we know that at the polls, the alternation will not work. So it is mobilized in the streets" , said he."While in France we have a right to be making a right-wing politics, and people in the head the next election." It is against this background that would explain the very high participation in the Socialist primary according to Julien Bayou. "We have seen other profiles went to move to vote in the second round of elections, especially young people," he adds.

The refusal of the "recovery"

In France, social movements are generally handled by the unions and some political parties. But the outraged French refused this form of "recovery", preferring a spontaneous movement. They realized soon and should change their modes of action. "It is true that initially we were quite aggressive vis-à-vis the associations and parties," recognized Delia Fernandez, the collective indignation, of Liberation."This has slowed the mobilization and preventing challenges to reach the street. For their part, they did not understand that we act in a pattern different from theirs. We will now try to cut corners."

The movement is ever convicted?

Not yet. The recent history of France showed that some mobilizations, it took several weeks before the mayonnaise takes. "For us, the mobilizations take time, it took two months for the movement against the First Job Contract off", said Robi Morder. To this researcher, do not bury a mobilization that may, one day to another, take a lot more important. "Be careful because there are embers, it would spark an escalation of the crisis or a big scandal for example, it really starts," said he.

Greece missed the deficit targets that were assigned by its international donors for this year and next, according to figures released Sunday by the Greek Ministry of Finance after approval by the Government of the draft budget 2012.

Athens expects the deficit to reach 8.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) this year, while the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had requested that the deficit does not exceed 7 , 6% of GDP.The draft budget projects the deficit will be reduced to 6.8% in 2012, against a target of 6.5%.

"There is money three months before the end of 2011 and the final estimate of a deficit to 8.5% of GDP can be achieved if the state apparatus and the citizens act accordingly," the Ministry in a statement.

"The draft budget will be submitted tomorrow (Monday) in parliament," he says.

European shares opened sharply higher Tuesday, extending their rally started Friday afternoon, still supported by expectations of further measures to stem the debt crisis in the euro area.

At 9:36, the CAC 40 index advances 2.79% at 2939.25 points after taking 1.75% Monday, with a volatility index down 4.31% to 47.81 points.

According to the U.S. television network CNBC, which cited a European financial responsibility, a special fund could be created through the European Investment Bank to issue bonds and purchase of European sovereign debt.Bonds could also serve as collateral for the ECB, CNBC added.

Austria's Ewald Nowotny, a member of the Governing Council of the ECB, for its part, said at a conference at Harvard University, an increase in the size of the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) was likely but would probably not as important as what some people expect, "not the order of a thousand billion" euros.

The "rally" bear markets are more violent, says Frederic Buzare, head of equity management at Dexia Asset Management, which has 85 billion euros of assets under management.The rebound will not last if investors do not get clear action plan to resolve the crisis, he added.

In this type of policy-driven market, it's all about the risk premium. The valuation ratios are no longer relevant, adds the manager.We spend more time reading the statements of leaders (political) to study the balance sheets of companies, he says.

For his part, U.S. President Barack Obama said Monday night that the crisis of European debt was "afraid the world" and that European leaders attacked the problem but not as quickly as needed.

Other major European markets, the London Stock Exchange gained 2.1%, the Frankfurt 3.2% and 2.6% in Milan, while the pan-European index STOXX 50 wins almost 3%.

Bank stocks are still at the top of increases in the CAC 40, with a gain of more than 9% for BNP Paribas, over 8% for Societe Generale and more than 7% for Credit Agricole. Axa takes 7.8%.The index of banks in Europe advance 3.5% /

But all sectors benefiting from the rebound on Tuesday, including cyclic, with a rebound of 4.5% of the index motor and 4.1% of commodities that had posted the weakest performance yesterday.

A barrel of U.S. light crude rose 2.6% to 82.29 dollars and Brent from 1.2% to 105.22 dollars, causing the oil companies and related industries in its wake.

The performance of the German government bond (Bund) and 10 years is around 1.9% against 1.8% the day before closing, while the euro is stable against the greenback around 1.3530 dollar.

Investor confidence in the euro area in September hit its lowest level in over two years, the institute said Monday Sentix.

The index fell to -15.4 in September, its lowest level since August 2009, after -13.5 in August.

The current conditions component fell to -3.25 after 3.50, but the expectations rose slightly to -26.75 -29.00 after.

Wall Street closed higher Wednesday, a new set of economic indicators back feeding the hope that the Federal Reserve gave a new boost to the economy at its policy meeting in September.

But the fact is precisely that economic indicators have generally been disappointing Wall Street has been reluctant in the afternoon and the three major indexes are now spent in the red.

The Dow Jones gained 53.58 points (0.46%) to 11,613.53 points. The S & P 500 is 5.97 points (0.49%) to 1218.89 points. The Nasdaq Composite Index advances 3.35 points (0.13%) to 2579.46 points.

On the month, the Dow Jones loses 4.4%, the S & P gives 5.7% and the Nasdaq was down 6.4%.This is the worst month of the S & P since May 2010.

However, since the beginning of the year, the Dow shows a slight gain of 0.3%.The S & P 500, meanwhile, has still gained almost 9% in seven of the last eight sessions, led by sectors sensitive to the economic cycle.

The minutes of the meeting of the Fed's August 9, released Tuesday, shows that it has proposed a series of actions to support the U.S. economy at its meeting in early August, some members calling for bold action.

At annual meetings of Jackson Hole, held last week, the Fed chairman Ben Bernanke had said she would meet two days in September, instead of originally planned, to reflect on the possibilities of creating a new monetary stimulus.

In terms of statistics, job creation in the private sector in the United States were below expectations in August, according to the results of the monthly ADP released Wednesday. It was created 91,000 jobs in August, while the market was expecting 100,000.

Moreover, the index of purchasing managers in the Chicago area fell in August, slightly less than expected, while falling to the lowest since November 2009.The index published on Wednesday in August falls to 56.5 against 58.8 in July and a consensus on giving 53.5.

In contrast, industrial orders rose 2.4% in July in the United States, more than expected, driven upward by the strength of the transport sector, said Wednesday the Commerce Department.

The fact that, according to sources, the U.S. Department of Justice has hired Wednesday a procedure to block the sale of T-Mobile, U.S. subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, AT & T, for reasons of respect for competition weighed on rating during the session.

AT & T lost 3.85% and the S & P Telecommunications 1.63%.

Some values ​​high tech weighed on the Nasdaq, which explains its low gain closure.Apple sold 1.32% and 2.7% Nvidia for example.

Good performance of industry, however, with their S & P gained 0.68%. Caterpillar is 1.3% and 1.1% Honeywell International.

The Japanese economy contracted less than expected from April to June thanks to the quick restoration of supply chains after the earthquake of March, but the soaring yen and slower global growth darken the hopes of recovery.

Economists expect the third world economy sketch a rebound from July to September, with probably the growth rate the highest in developed countries, as exports and industrial production will return to their levels before the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the north.

According to official figures released Monday, the gross domestic product (GDP) fell 0.3% in the second quarter, after 0.9% from January to March.Economists on average had expected a contraction of 0.7%.

On an annualized basis, the economy contracted by 1.3%, while economists expected a decline of 2.6%.

These figures better than expected boosted the Tokyo Stock Exchange, which in turn took the road to recovery from the European and U.S. markets late last week with a gain of 1.37% for the Nikkei.

However, the impact of the debt crisis in the euro zone on global growth might deprive Japan of export opportunities they need to start from the front, while pushing up the yen, safe haven, which will complicate doubling the equation for exporting companies.

"The economy will show a recovery in the shape of 'V' between July and September when supply chains are recovering and will help boost exports," notes Yoshiki Shinkai, economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute.

"But the momentum will weaken from October to December with the slowdown in the pace of recovery in external demand, even if (GDP) will not fall back into contraction.In fact, it is even possible that the global economy begins to sputter. "

Restocking AND PUBLIC INVESTMENT

In this context, the Japanese Minister of Economy Kaoru Yosano urged the Bank of Japan (BoJ) to help save the recovery by maintaining its strong liquidity injections and ultra-accommodative policy.

"We will closely monitor the impact that Japan's economy on the rise in the yen and the increasing uncertainty about global growth," he told reporters.

The yen, buoyed by the weak dollar, has appreciated by about 5% in just one month, approaching its historic high of 76.25 yen to the dollar, a level not taken into account by companies Japanese to build their profit forecasts.Around 0930 GMT Monday, the greenback was trading at 76.85 yen.

In the second quarter, the Japanese economy has performed better than expected thanks to the restocking of business and higher public investment, since the first six quarters, as part of the reconstruction effort.

Consumer spending, which accounts for 60% of the economy, fell 0.1% from April to June, down less than expected in favor of special items such as the transition to digital television that fueled TV sales.

But external demand – net exports – have reduced GDP by 0.8 percentage point, the disaster of March 11 that prevented some manufacturers deliver their products outside the archipelago.

And some analysts see the slow growth in business investment spending (+0.2% against 0.5% expected) a sign of their distrust of uncertainties about the economy.