German banks at the forefront in Greece

If European leaders want to involve rescuing investors from Greece, they will have to negotiate primarily with German banks. They are in fact those who hold more government debt, amounting to $ 22.7 billion (15.5 billion euros), according to figures released Monday by the Bank for International Settlements. The French came second, with an exposure of 15 billion dollars (10.3 billion euros).

A total exposure of all European banks in Greece's debt stands at $ 52.3 billion (35.8 billion euros). By adding the two other countries receiving EU aid and the IMF, Ireland and Portugal, the figure stands at 100 billion euros. German institutions hold almost two thirds of this amount.

Particpiation private

Friday, EU leaders said they reached agreement on the extension of aid to Greece. About 60 to 65 billion euros that the new plan would cost a quarter, or 15 to 20 billion euros would come from the private sector. He would ask investors to reinvest in Greek debt money recovered when their bonds mature.

Such an initiative would demonstrate that participation in the effort from the private sector has been explored, "said Justin Knight, strategist at UBS AG, quoted by Bloomberg. "This could lead to voters to accept a new European public aid" to Greece business card. The Germans would, however, according to Die Welt, go further and require banks to extend loan periods, exchanging bonds maturing by other securities of a longer duration.

Default risk

However, "some sources suggest that asking banks to exchange the Greek bonds could trigger precisely a failure," says Luigi Speranza, an economist at BNP Paribas CIB. The rating agency Fitch estimates for its part in a note published Monday that even an exchange of debt on a voluntary basis, if it is unfavorable to creditors, may be considered a "credit event", ie ie a payment default.

In this context, EU leaders are walking a tightrope. Especially since the European Central Bank reiterated Monday his opposition to the restructuring of state debt. "Imposing a discount to private investors can seriously disrupt the real economy and financial creditor and debtor countries, has said Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, board member of the institution.Therefore a restructuring would be done as a last resort, that is to say when it is clear that the debtor country can not repay its debts. "

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Wall Street does not go up the slope

The NYSE has attempted to initiate a mini-rebound Thursday. In vain. Economic statistics are still bad on Thursday and Valuers bank saddled the trend. Thus, the Dow Jones lost 0.56% at 12,220 points, the Nasdaq yields 0.16% to 2765 points while the S & P fold from 0.41% to 1309 points.

Yesterday, U.S. markets have taken a double slap (more than 2% losses) with first a series of bad macroeconomic indicators that raise doubts about the health of the world's largest economy. Then with Moody's decision to degrade three notches note of the Greek debt. The rating agency has cooled the financial markets had begun to hope that a solution be found to stabilize the financial situation of the country.

On Thursday, investors do not turn the page of this session was the worst recorded since August 2010.Bad numbers have fallen:

– The weekly jobless claims fell less than expected in the United States during the week to 28 May, against 422,000 428,000 (revised) the previous week, said Thursday the Department of labour.In economists on average expected 415,000 entries in unemployment.

– U.S. inventories of crude oil rose against all odds last week, said Thursday the U.S. Agency for Energy Information (EIA). Crude oil inventories rose 2.88 million barrels to 373.81 million. Economists on average had expected a decline of 1.3 million barrels [EIA / S]. The oil prices were down sharply after the announcement. Ceded $ 1.42 a barrel after a fall already marked.

On the currency side, the single currency continues to rise against the greenback. One euro is worth more than $ 1.44.For their part,

However, non-farm productivity rose more than expected in the first quarter, while unit labor costs rose slightly more than expected, according to the second estimate published Thursday by the Labor Department. Productivity, which measures hourly output per employee rose by 1.8% instead of the 1.6% increase announced in the first estimate. The market expected it to climb by 1.7% over the period from January to March.

Other bad news affecting U.S. banks this time: Goldman Sachs (-1.61%) received a subpoena from prosecutors in New York who want to learn more about its role in financial crisis.In addition Moody's "could reduce" the credit ratings of Bank of America (+0.35% to 11.28 dollars), Citigroup (+0.15% to 39.71 dollars) and Wells Fargo (+0, 28% to 27.02 dollars) on behalf of a hypothetical reduction in state support for large U.S. federal institutions in the country. The rating agency notes that the current notes of banks take account of public aid granted by the Treasury at the height of the financial crisis.

Google and China: Paper

Internet giant Google (+0.25% to 526.93 points) was monitored after the announcement of a hijacking Gmail accounts by hundreds of Chinese dissidents and American officials. While Google suggests a Haker Chinese, Beijing denounced the remarks "unacceptable."

The distributor Costco Wholesale Corporation (+0.12% to 80.31 dollars) has reported a net profit of $ 324 million in the third quarter of 2010-2011 (73 cents per share), up 6% the same period last year. Based on the number of share, earnings were 73 cents. Turnover was up 16% to $ 20.2 billion, with a jump of 12% on a comparable basis.

Limited Brands (-5.48% to 36.59 dollars) has announced a 6% increase in May same-store constant at 717 million dollars. But this figure is below expectations of analysts who had forecast an increase of 7%.

The mining equipment manufacturer Joy Global (3.07% to 88.70 dollars) has reported a profit of 34% to 162 million in the second fiscal quarter, or $ 1.52 per share. Income climbed 19% to 1.06 billion.It's better than $ 1.35 per share and $ 1 billion expected by markets. The group also revises upward its forecasts. It now expects earnings per share between $ 5.60 and 5.30 against 5.10 to 5.40 before.

WPP (-3.78% to 11.95 dollars), the leading global advertising in terms of revenue, announced Thursday an organic growth above 6% during the first four months of the year, thanks including a good performance in the United States.

After Japan, the fall in industrial activity in France

Surprises in the industry. Production fell unexpectedly in March, activity in the manufacturing of picking up 1%, offsetting a rebound of the same magnitude in March, reports the INSEE. The industry as a whole fell 0.9% in March, after +0.5% in, February.

Virtually all sectors are in the red in March. The most dramatic decline is undoubtedly out of road car production, which lost 4.3% in one month, after 2% in February. The end of the scrapping partly explains the sudden stall. "The supplies seem to suffer from the Japanese crisis," also argues INSEE. The earthquake and tsunami, has paralyzed parts of the archipelago where factories subcontracting to automotive know-how.For example, the manufacturer PSA had to slow down its production in Europe because of a part for diesel engine developed exclusively on a Japanese site affected by the disaster. In addition, all transportation registers down -4.2% (against a rebound of 2.4% in February).

Also penalized by shortages of components due to events in Japan, activity in the electrical, electronic and information technology has continued to decline in March, to -1% from -0.9% in February. The agrifood sector displays a production decline of 0.4%. In this as in the automotive sector, "it remains unclear how much of the decline in production due to malfunction of the Japanese industry and what proportion by lower demand," says Dominique Barbet, an economist market at BNP Paribas.

The production of energy and water, on the other hand, fell 0.7% against 1.2% in February. In construction activity also declined by 0.3% after -0.2% in February.

Quarterly Progress

The poor figures of March are not enough to spoil the balance on the first quarter. From January to March, manufacturing output jumped 3% from late 2010, and the industry as a whole by 2.1%.

This increase is due to the boost given by the maturity of scrapping the transport sector (+3.1%) and the catch-up effect in refining (+21.3 %) after a fourth quarter of 2010 severely disrupted by strikes.

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Asian stock markets into negative territory

Asian stock exchanges are again plunged into anxiety. On Tuesday, the difficulties of returning to Japan central concern of investors.

The Japanese Nuclear Safety Agency has raised Tuesday to the maximum level of 7 the nuclear accident at the plant in Fukushima on the scale of nuclear and radiological events (INES). Which is to place the same degree of seriousness that the Chernobyl disaster. Engineers at Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), the operator of the plant, still unable to regain control of the site, where a fire was brought under control Tuesday. TEPCO also concerned that the radioactive leaks Fukushima are finally more important than those made during the disaster in Ukraine.

Japan has also been shaken by two aftershocks of the earthquake on Tuesday. The first took place at 8:08 local time, east of Tokyo.According to the American Institute of Geophysics (USGS), the magnitude 6.4 quake occurred 77 km from the Japanese capital. The second, magnitude 6.3, occurred at 2:07 p.m. in the same prefecture of Fukushima, the central location.

The red squares invades Asia

At the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Nikkei started the day on a sharp decline of 1.20%. He dug his losses to -1.80% in session before rebounding slightly. It finally closed on a decline of 1.69% to 9555.26 points. The broader Topix index dropped 1.62% to its share at 838.51 points.

In addition to concerns about nuclear operations were penalized by the strong surge in the yen against the dollar and euro. The greenback was worth about 83.90 yen at the close of the Tokyo site, or a loss of nearly one yen in a few hours, while the European currency fell nearly one and a half yen to 120.75 yen about.Market participants are also concerned always consequences on business and the economy of Japanese earthquake of March 11.

The rest of the region followed the footsteps of Tokyo. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng was down 1.33% while in Shanghai, the Shanghai Composite attempts an advanced 0.44%. Note that Chinese operators remain cautious while to be released Friday indcateurs major economy.

In Korea, the Kospi lost 1.26% in Australia, the S & P dropped 1.39% while in India the Sensex 0.97% loose.

Oil falls further

Side of the oil markets, the concern is gaining investors. The market is particularly concerned about the impact of high prices for black gold on the economic recovery. In morning trading, a barrel of light sweet crude for May delivery yielded 1.49 dollars to 108.43 dollars.That of Brent North Sea crude for May delivery lost 1.44 dollars to 122.54 dollars.

"The market fears that, with rising crude oil prices, demand will decline, which will affect the U.S. recovery," said Ong Yi Ling, an analyst at Phillip Futures.

Carrefour success of the strike, the talks will resume

Unions are rather relieved. After fears Friday that their call for the strike falls flat, following the announcement last minute by the management to reopen salary negotiations, they have welcomed a widely followed mobilization Saturday. Employees hypermarket distribution group were in fact called by four unions to strike on April 9 to protest among other things against salary increases for 2011, considered insufficient. The appeal was launched in late March by the FGTA-FP, the majority union at Carrefour (with more than 45% representation), and supported by the CGT, CFDT and CGC.

In total, employees of French retail group came to mass protest around the shops in this traditional day of great crowds in hypermarkets.According to estimates by trade unions, the movement has been widely followed (50 to 85% of striking workers) in 130 of 203 hypermarkets in the group. Over thirty sites have been completely blocked, preventing access of employees supermarkets. Even when they were not completely blocked, the strike rate has varied between 30% to 85% as estimated by Dejan Terglav, general secretary of the FO-FGTA reported by AFP. "The regions have been mobilized over the North Brittany and the Centre", said the unionist. When contacted, the management of Carrefour has not confirmed those numbers, ensuring that all supermarkets remained open and were greeted customers.

Union representatives Friday morning anticipating a high rate of mobilization of employees. A rare occurrence in a group unaccustomed to large-scale social movements."Especially since the announcement of the reopening of Carrefour wage negotiations Wednesday could deter some people from coming forward. But reopening negotiations, it does not mean to succeed "insisted Dejan Terglav.

"It's a movement that looks pretty memorable," confirmed Frank Gaulin, Steward central CGT. For his part Frank Gaulin central CGT union representative called the move "memorable" and hoped that "management sees fit." Jean-Claude Mailly, secretary general of the Workers' Force (FOR), came Saturday to support the movement at the site of Le Mans, on strike for 80%. "People want a redistribution within companies.When they are unwilling to do that, there is a strike, "said union leader, also claims that" a device to make compulsory the transport allowance in all enterprises. "

Insufficient wage increase

While management offers its employees a 1% increase in wages to March 1 and another 1% increase on 1 October, union officials estimate that these proposals do not cover inflation announced by 2% instant payday loans. "I do not really represents only 1% over the year," says a leaflet distributed by the FGTA-FO, which requests that the increases are decided once a year. The promise of recovery to 10% (against 7% previously) discounts on purchases of stores, and the announcement of the reopening of negotiations next Wednesday, will not suffice to bring back the union leaders on their decision.

Indeed, beyond wages, discomfort is increasingly strong-side conditions of use and new methods of work since arriving at the head of the group of Swedish Lars Olofsson, in January 2009. In total, FGTA-FO amounted to 10,000 the number of jobs cut since 5 years, and denounced a "new business model based on night work generalized ultra simplified workflow and increased employee stress .

The union also stipulates that future negotiations with management will not only wages and, even in case of high wage increase, it will not bend on the claims concerning the improvement of working conditions.

Opposition to the plans of division

While President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday expressed its willingness to link salaries to dividends, the unions could ask for more support for their speeches. For the third and final major demand, workers are opposed to the division by trading in the subsidiary Dia hard discount and the 25% of the land Carrefour Property. According to unions, these purely financial transactions would bring six billion euros to the two main shareholders, Bernard Arnault and Colony Capital (14% stake and 20% of voting rights between them).

In the words of Dejan Terglav in Les Echos reported on Friday, the organization also wants the Mutual Fund Business (CIPF) 'vote against the division (at the next general meeting of June 21 ed.)CIPF owns approximately 1.33% of the shares but the double voting rights "said the union leader. Bringing to nearly 4% the number of shareholders opposed the project, with the fund Knight Vinke (more than 1% of capital). But for now insufficient to meet a third of votes needed to derail the project.

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The check still has a bright future ahead of him

Adjust his purchases by check is a French exception, that still has good days ahead. Christine Lagarde, Minister of Economy, was clear Wednesday: "I am not advocating the abolition of the check."

It is true that this payment method is widely used by the French, by far the biggest consumers of checks in Europe and second in the world behind the Americans, according to a report by the Financial Sector Advisory Committee (RSCC) to request of the Minister of Economy.

In 2009, France has issued 3.3 billion, or 81% of checks in the euro area! Even though the means of payment, expensive for banks losing ground over the past fifteen years, the French are still 51 checks per year on average.In total, 20% of payments (excluding cash) are settled in this way.

In the eyes of consumers, the check has at least two advantages: it is free and above all it is the means of payment "allows better control its spending," said the report carried out in cooperation with the firm Edgar, Dunn & Company ( EDC).

Sometimes, individuals are forced to pay some of their expenses by check. This is particularly true of tuition or canteen, home services, physician fees or sports. So, the main consumers of checks are not elderly, but the 35-49 years, usually parents of schoolchildren. A small majority of French people (51%) also likes to pay major expenses (above 500 euros) per check.They also prefer this payment method to pay for the purchase and maintenance of a car (67% of the sums are paid by check), rent (50%) and pharmaceuticals and medical items (50%).

Small businesses also use much this payment to settle suppliers or pay wages, but it is much less appreciated for collection payday loan.

Although the use of checks is declining steadily, its still slow decline (-4% per year between 2002 and 2009). Ultimately, its use has decreased by 28% between 1998 and 2008, in favor of other means of payment such as credit card (+202%), transfer (+39%) and withdrawal (+104%) . But this is not enough.

Improve the transfer

Christine Lagarde, "the priority is that consumers have access to modern means of payment and easy to use, offering a service that is both effective, safe and cost."But "the extensive use of the check, then it has declined significantly or disappeared from our European neighbors, shows that the means of payment offered in France does not fully meet these objectives." The Minister has requested a report on ways to diversify the means of payment. It must be returned in October.

For its part, the Financial Sector Advisory Committee (RSCC), a structure involving representatives of banks, insurers, their personal and consumer associations, has proposed several avenues to accelerate the replacement of the check, including improved the transfer and development of new means of payment.The report cites examples of BPAY in Australia and Faster Payments in the United Kingdom, two electronic payment systems or by phone.

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The CAC 40 is a breath of fresh air

The CAC 40, which won in the 4000 points on Monday night, amid record oil prices and gasoline, returns to form on Tuesday: the index 0.32% to 4003.19 wins points in early trade. The DAX index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange opened, it, up from 0.69% to 7211.06 points while the Footise London gained 0.31% over the closing Monday at 5,992.30 points .

Last night, Wall Street has yet suffered during the black gold but this morning, Asian stock markets have evolved around the equilibrium. Tensions in the oil market will settle down when in fact that Nigeria, Kuwait and the UAE will increase their oil production by April to offset higher prices that now exists as Libya comes into civil war with an additional 300,000 barrels per day, according to the Financial Times.This morning, oil prices let loose ground: in the electronic exchange of the night, a barrel of light sweet crude for April delivery yielded 1.41% to 103.95 dollars. That of Brent North Sea fell from 1.16% to 113.71 dollars.

French growth of 0.8% in first quarter

Side macroeconomic figures on Tuesday to watch: Bank of France said Tuesday forecast growth of 0.8% of gross domestic product (GDP) of France in the first quarter of this year in its monthly business survey. The survey on business climate shows a continued growth of industrial activity in February, but at a slower pace than in January, the indicator remained stable 110. The business climate indicator in services has increased in parallel from one point to 102.

Moreover, the trade deficit widened from France in January, to 5.89 billion euros against 5.60 billion the previous month, seasonally adjusted data, the Customs said Tuesday.

In Germany, it will follow at noon, industrial orders in January (Destatis). No statistics are expected this afternoon from the United States.

Scor: net profit up 13%

At the Paris Stock Exchange on Tuesday morning, Michelin took the top ranking (1.99% to 58.89 euros) the Cac 40, followed by Accor (1.25%) and Axa (+1.18% ). Red side, Alcatel Lucent was down 0.15%, 0.06% of Capgemini and GDF Suez of 0.02%.

The SBF, Scor (1.78% to 21.43 euros) stands out. The reinsurer recorded in 2010 net profit up 13% to 418.0 million euros, above expectations, thanks to a surge in financial products, according to a statement released Tuesday.It is also in talks to buy the U.S. Transamerica Reinsurance, a subsidiary of its Dutch rival Aegon, reports Bloomberg.

Air France-KLM (-0.34% to 11.60 euros) reported on Tuesday morning traffic on a February increase of 4.9% capacity increase of 5.1% annual rate . This brings "a quasi-stable load factor to 77.6%," says the airline in a statement. Passenger numbers rose 5.7% to 58.1 million.

Side values, the oil services group Technip (-1.28% to 70.72 euros) has signed a contract worth around 45 million euros for the Gjoa Field Development in the Norwegian North Sea, he said Tuesday in a statement.

To be continued this evening, after-hours trading, the 2010 earnings of Havas and BioMérieux.

Renault management is increasingly isolated

How far will go the extravagant case of industrial espionage that poisons every day Renault? In the wake of testimony by Patrick Pelata has acknowledged for the first time in Le Figaro, "a number of elements lead us to doubt" and mentioned the idea of a "manipulation" before turning his position as Chief Operating Officer on the spot, the reactions have little overdue. They have mostly endorsed what looks like a sacrifice programmed. Friday morning, Christine Lagarde has considered the No. 2 company "had the dignity to indicate that he might be mistaken, and that if it was proved he was mistaken, he would draw all the consequences. ""I think it's worthy" by Patrick Pelata, said Minister of Economy in claiming that "we arrive at the truth, it gets there quickly, if the suspicions were unfounded, justice, confidence is restored and compensation is paid. "

In the same vein, his counterpart for Industry, Eric Besson, has confirmed that management problems are posed "if it is the manipulation hypothesis, which dominates in the end." Before adding: "I also noted that Mr. Pelata, very dignified and quite logically, has already warned that he would draw the conclusions for himself." Finally, the Elysee does not hide his irritation."This case, bad for the image of the company, not the show great professionalism," has dealt a collaborator of Nicolas Sarkozy.

• The direction of the group's safety should she not slipped by using methods of spooks?

The internal investigation, legal "point of French law", as claimed by Patrick Pelata, was conducted by a team composed of fairly baroque Remi Loincloth, formerly of the DGSE, Marc Tixador, the former PJ Versailles, and Dominique Gevrey defector from the Directorate of Protection and Security of Defense (DPSD) readily described as a "central figure" in this story. Like a bad spy novel, a sum of 100,000 euros has transited into five payments last fall in Madrid via L. Michel, a former paratrooper became a private investigator.

Agreeing to play the "biller for the defense of French interests," it is simply a "short circuit" used to confuse the trail to a mysterious Mabrouk and "external source" who reportedly discovered ghostly accounts opened in Switzerland and Liechtenstein by the three executives on suspicion of espionage. Since this information just communicated orally, have been questioned, the manufacturer does not even seem able to identify his "deep throat": the only employee of security service who knows stubbornly refuses to cooperate. To protect at all costs or to hide an embezzlement to the detriment of Renault? As a confession, Patrick Pelata conceded: "We erred in not involving the DCRI earlier."

• What are the collateral damage to Renault?

The damage in terms of image are significant.While the group had been traumatized by the suicide of three employees of Guyancourt Technocentre late 2006-early 2007, serious questions arise again on his management style. Renault seems to be a company where one can accuse and dismiss employees without evidence, solely on the basis of anonymous testimony. This case falls ill while the group was counting on its electric vehicles-those who have supposedly been spied-to repair its image. Sales of these cars and the entire range will suffer they? Hard to tell because the picture-in determining whether the act of purchase and also depends on products. But the group will leave with a disability. Adding that "it's all business operations that may be seized, as management has been discredited, analysis framework, which adds it will take time before confidence is restored."

• Carlos Ghosn is he in trouble?

If the spy case deflates, the group took a huge risk by raising its CEO at the forefront in the media. In the JDD, January 23, he said he "personally monitoring the progress of this process as and when." The same evening, on TF1, Carlos Ghosn has hammered that he had "certainty" about the guilt of the three frameworks and evidence had "multiple", but did not disclose. On 10 February, at the announcement of the strategic plan, the CEO drove home the point by asking him to "trust" because "tens of people have analyzed the facts."In case of "manipulation", the question remains whether the employees and the government will simply sacrifice his number 2.

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G20: Sino-American game on the yuan

Ben Bernanke, head of the U.S. central bank (Fed), and his Chinese counterpart, Zhou Xiaochuan, stole the spotlight at their colleagues in the euro zone, Japan and the UK ahead of the G20. The leaders of the five banks of issue most powerful nations were invited by the Banque de France to discuss "global imbalances and financial stability." The debate was reduced to a duel to the barbed among central bankers of the first two world powers.

Without ever naming China, Ben Bernanke believes that "the maintenance of currency undervalued by some countries contributes to a structure of global demand unbalanced and unsustainable." The Fed chief stigmatizes those countries with large trade surpluses sustainably.This helped to show "an excess of global savings, which spilled on the U.S. economy, providing a permissive factor in the subprime mortgage crisis, said the Fed chief.

Zhou Xiaochuan acknowledged that China needs to reorient its growth towards domestic demand. But he believes that such a paradigm shift "will necessitate a series of more than ten years, including time to set up a welfare system that encourages the Chinese to save less. As evidence of the shift of services to his country, he "announced the good news: only 10% of new loans now are moving on the sectors of manufacturing industry," he said.

A Sino-American game

The President of the People's Bank of China believes the most "structural measures as price mechanisms", namely the exchange rate of the yuan.He noted that Chinese manufacturers will not want to redirect more than 20% of their production to domestic demand, "They say that exports always relate more than the market."

Two conceptions of economic policy clash. The great American financier believes in market mechanisms. He urged the country's trade surplus' to allow their exchange rates to better reflect market fundamentals. " Chinese consumers, enriched by the reassessment of the yuan, and will buy more foreign products.

For Zhou Xiaochuan, "it seems inappropriate to link the savings rate exclusively to the exchange rate and it is also unrealistic to solve short term problems in the long term," as he explains in an article the Financial Stability Review published by the Bank of France in the G20 (G20 each central banker helped).

The Sino-American game has somewhat overshadowed the performance of the other participants, even if a real consensus has emerged on the need to reduce the imbalances. Otherwise he should fear "the use of protectionism to one or more countries", warns Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England. Jean-Claude Trichet, ECB president, also fears that "imbalances widened again."Masaaki Shirakawa, Governor of the Bank of Japan, worries about him that "the rigidity of exchange rates of major emerging economies could impact more and more important on the global economy."

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The NYSE takes colors

U.S. stock markets opened on a positive note Wednesday, after avoirfini down slightly Tuesday as investors reacted with concern to economic indicators on consumption and inflation in the United States.

Today, the indices leave up: the Dow Jones allows itself to 0.27% 12,260 points, the broader index Standard & Poor's 500 up 0.43% to 1334 points and the Nasdaq 100 advance of 0.47 % at 3817 points.

In the U.S., retail sales rose 0.3% in January, the lowest increase in seven months. Another indicator is bad news, import prices have increased more than expected (+1.5%) in January, because of the strength of oil prices. Inflation stood at 5.3% annual rate (against 4.4% in December).These figures have reinforced concerns that appear in recent weeks on the market caused by soaring prices of many commodities.

On the foreign exchange market, the euro gained ground against dollar on Wednesday bending under the weight of disappointing U.S. figures published yesterday. About 11:00 am in Paris, the euro bought 1.3545 dollars against 1.3488 dollars late Tuesday.

On the macroeconomic front, the news is particularly busy on Wednesday.Included were published before the opening gong, industrial production in the United States has declined (-0.1%) unexpectedly in January, driven by a decline in energy production, according to figures released Wednesday by the U.S. central bank (Fed) increased the number of housing starts rose more than expected in January, reaching their highest level in four months in seasonally adjusted data 596 000 (+14.6%), against 520,000 the previous month according to the Commerce Department, and the producer prices have increased (+0.8%) more than expected in January, according to figures released Wednesday by the Labor Department in Washington.

The weekly inventory of crude oil will fall to 16.30 and the minutes of the last meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee of the U.S. central bank to 20.30.

Sanofi wins Genzyme

The side of values, Sanofi-Aventis has finally agreed to pay $ 20.1 billion (14.8 billion euros) to acquire Genzyme (1.55% to 75.45 dollars), plus an amount an additional price tied to the success of drugs in American society of biotechnology. After more than seven months of negotiations, the French pharmaceutical group will pay $ 74 in cash per share Genzyme, 1.2 billion more than its original offer. The agreement, unanimously approved by boards of directors of both companies has been concluded with the introduction of a certificate of conditional value (CCV), particularly related to the performance of Lemtrada, Genzyme's experimental treatment in multiple sclerosis sclerosis no faxing payday loan.The value of CVC could reach a maximum of $ 14 if sales of Lemtrada totaled $ 2.8 billion by 2020, had said Wednesday the two companies in a joint statement.

The number two U.S. computer, Dell (6.76% and 14.85 dollars), after-hours trading on Tuesday a net profit almost doubled in 2010 thanks to higher sales and margins, and said that it expected continued strong momentum in sales this year. Over the whole of last year, net income jumped 84% to $ 2.6 billion.Revenues reached $ 61.5 billion, up 16%.

For his part, Analog Devices (-0.66% to 40.73 dollars) recorded in the first quarter of 2010/2011 a profit of 222.1 million dollars or 0.66 dollars per share, against $ 0.65 expected for a turnover of 729 million, in line with analysts' forecasts.For the current quarter, the company aims adjusted EPS in the range 0.65 to $ 0.69.

Also after the close, Air Products (4.37% to 94.16 dollars) announced it would abandon its takeover offer for Airgas following the decision by a Delaware court to maintain the anti-takeover of "Airgas.

Nelson Peltz submitted an offer to buy the company Family Dollar Stores (24.88% to 54.90 dollars) to 7.6 billion, or about 55 to 60 dollars per share.

Moody's raised its outlook for NYSE Euronext (-2.07% to 37.33 dollars), following the merger with Deutsche Börse. The rating agency adopts outlook "positive" cons "stable" before. If the merger is approved, the agency expects a surge in the first note of the future operator of the planet.

United Airlines decided to ground its fleet of Boeing 757, for an unannounced inspection.The U.S. company must perform safety checks on some of the onboard computers. They had to be changed by order of the Board in 2004 and must be re-inspected.

Note also, Madoff, who is serving a sentence of 150 years in prison told the New York Times that a number of banks and investment funds were "necessarily aware" of his fraud. Arrested in late 2008, Dr. Madoff was convicted in June 2009 for organizing a massive Ponzi scheme in which its around 16,000 victims have lost a total of several tens of billions of dollars they had entrusted him. Irving Picard, the attorney appointed to represent the victims of Mr.Madoff, filed a complaint on December 2 against the U.S. bank JPMorgan (1.58% to 47.56 dollars), accusing him of being "fully complicit" of fraud by the former rising star on Wall Street choosing "knowingly", like other financial institutions "look away".