Financial, Business, Personal Finance News

The consumption of American households rose in July

Consumer spending in U.S. households rose 0.4% and revenues by 0.2% in July, show statistics released Monday by the Commerce Department.

Consumer spending and showing the strongest gain in four months, receiving a slight increase in revenue.

The figures for consumption and income showed an unchanged rate in the month of June

Economists and analysts polled by Reuters had forecast an average increase of 0.3% of consumer spending and incomes in July.

The savings rate was 5.9%.

After the publication of these figures, futures on the S & P 500 have cut their losses.

Women's magazines Be and Envy are about to merge

Lagardere Group and Marie-Claire will announce on Friday the merger of their respective women's weekly, Be, Envy, launched in spring, following the slowdown in sales, "wrote Le Figaro.

The announcement comes as the magazine Grazia, the Italian group Mondadori, celebrates its first anniversary, the newspaper said.

Lagardere Active said Thursday it would make an "important announcement" on Friday morning, without further details.

"The proposed merger of two weekly was presented yesterday to the works of two groups," said a source quoted by Le Figaro.

To move into the niche market of women but crowded, Lagardere had decided in March to create the brand Be, both magazine, website, television series, application for the iPhone and web radio.

Lagardère Group owns 42% Marie Claire, one of which minority interests Arnaud Lagardère, general partner of the group, reiterated Thursday night trying to get rid.

"Be" was the first launch of magazine audience Lagardère since 2003. The group, which had invested some 20 million euros rough in launching this new brand, targeted a breakeven within three years.

According to Le Figaro, the approximation of the two week early due to faltering sales.Be seen its circulation fall to 171,397 copies sold in late June against nearly 230,000 at the beginning, while qu'Envy barely exceeded 160,000 at the same time cons over 240,000 at its launch in February.

Nestlé completes sale of Alcon to Novartis

Nestle announced Thursday it had finalized the sale of Novartis's 52% that remained in Alcon for $ 28.3 billion (22.3 billion euros).

Nestle has received a total of 41 billion dollars selling American specialist in ophthalmology, if one takes into account the three stages of disinvestment, namely the initial IPO of 23.25% in 2002, sale of 24.8% in 2008 and the last transaction with Novartis, conducted Wednesday, said the world number one agribusiness in a statement.

Nestle, which had acquired Alcon in 1977 for 280 million dollars, now intends to "significantly reduce its net debt, which amounted to 29.6 billion at end June 2010.

Novartis now controls 77% of Alcon and its later clarified in a separate statement that its initial tranche of 25% had already recorded a gain of $ 200 million for the year.

The integration costs of $ 140 million, spread over three years and will save annual synergies of 200 million dollars, said pharmaceutical group.

This year however, will be impacted by charges of 140 million, including transaction costs.

The acquisition will be neutral to earnings per share in 2010 and 2011 but should be accretive as this year for basic EPS ('core').

Novartis is now looking to buy the remaining 23% but the independent directors of Alcon opposed to the proposed price of 2.8 shares per share Novartis Alcon, which is 15% less than the $ 168 per share paid Nestlé.

Swiss law allows Novartis to adopt such an approach but does not guarantee the success of its offer to minority shareholders.

New fall in unemployment in France in July

The stabilization of the labor market was confirmed in July in France with an increasing decline in youth unemployment and a rise in job vacancies so that the executive is preparing a return to social and political agitation.

The number of jobseekers in category A, which includes those without work and actively seeking employment, fell for the second consecutive month, declining by 14,400 (-0.5%) last month in France, to 2,676,600 people.

He declined 8,600 (-0.3%) in June, which was the second decline year after the March.

By adding job seekers engaged in a Pool (Class B and C), the number of unemployed increased by 0.1%, however in a monthly basis in July (+5.300) for an increase of 8.1% year on year to 3,963,800 people (4,208,300 including Dom).

"It's positive, we have for the second consecutive month falling unemployment.It's an indication of stabilization of unemployment, "said Minister of Economy Christine Lagarde in an interview with Reuters.

"We have a range of indicators is positive and give us hope that this trend early (…) will probably keep", she added, citing the purchase intentions, ocean freight, advertising, the interim, the recovery of stocks, investments and consumption.

"Who says less of job seekers said wages and therefore more consumption and at the level of public finances, less unemployment and thus a situation of public finances Unedic-improved," continued Christine Lagarde while the government is preparing the draft budget 2011 will be announced in late September.

The executive confirmed last week its goal of bringing the deficit of France in 6% of GDP next year despite the lowering of a half-point to 2.0%, its growth forecast economy.

DOWN FOR THE YOUNG, THE RISE FOR OVER 50 YEARS

The upturn on the labor market due to an accelerated decline in youth unemployment.

Job offers collected by job center for their part, returned to the increase.

Among youth under 25 years, the number of unemployed declined by 2.8% in group A compared to June fell by 1.8% in one year.For categories A, B and C, the youth unemployment down 0.2% on month but a 1.8% increase over one year.

Job offers collected by Pole employment grew 3.6% in July in France and show an increase of 12.7% over one year.They were down by 0.6% in June from the previous month increased 7.1% over one year.

The long-term unemployed and those over 50 years, however, continued to grow.

For over 50 years, unemployment has increased by 0.8% in group A (+17.6% yoy) and 1.1% for the three main categories (+17.1% on year).

The number of long-term unemployed – registered at employment center for a year or more – rose 0.8% in July for categories A, B, C with a mass increase that is over one year (+27.6% ).

The detailed statistics also shows that entry to public service employment in Class A, B and C were down 2.4% from June, down 4.4% year on year.

The outputs of the same categories are in the same time remained stable but rose 4.1% over one year. Among them, radiation administrative advances of 7.3% compared to June, the search stops 11.5% and entries on probation by 17%.

The French economy has created 23,900 jobs in the market sector in the first quarter with growth of the economy by 0.1% and 35,000 in the second quarter with growth accelerated to 0.6%.

Unemployment according to ILO will be published Sept. 2 by INSEE. He stood at 9.5% in the first quarter (9.9% in counting overseas departments), the highest since the fall of 1999.

Wall Street opens up, driven by mergers and acquisitions

Wall Street opened on earnings Monday, investors regaining confidence through several projects of mergers and acquisitions.

A few minutes after the start of trading, the Dow Jones gained 0.54% to 10,268.56 points, the Standard & Poor's 500 index 0.58% to 1077.89 points and the Nasdaq Composite 0.67% to 2194.34 points.

Hewlett-Packard on Monday launched an offer of 1.6 billion dollars (1.2 billion euros) to acquire the data storage company 3PAR, competing with the offer of its rival Dell issued last week.

Titles 3PAR Dell responded to the rise of this announcement, gaining 0.83% respectively and 42%, while HP lost 0.27% at the opening.

The group Campbell Soup gained 0.19% after announcing consider an offer of 1.5 billion pounds (2.3 billion dollars) on the activities of Britain's United Biscuits cookies.

Finally, 3M took the 1.10% group is likely to spend about two billion dollars (1.6 billion) in acquisitions this year, twice more than its previous estimate.

"This suggests that companies have reached a point where they want to grow their cash. (…) This is obviously a positive sign for markets," said Michael O'Rourke, a specialist market with BTIG LLC.

Crédit Agricole sealed by its subsidiary in Greece

Crédit Agricole has extended by one year the return to profit of its Greek subsidiary Emporiki due to credit losses more than expected because of the recession in Greece. The woes of its Greek subsidiary Crédit Agricole will require to spend a further depreciation of 400 million euros in its accounts the second quarter, after the 500 million spent last year.

The French bank, which bought Emporiki in 2006, told analysts still expected a pretax loss of 130 million euros for its subsidiary in 2011, instead of a profit of around 10 million expected initially. For 2010, the expected loss for Emporiki will also increase, to EUR -750 000 000 -350 000 000 cons around. Return to the green accounts is the Greek subsidiary of the blow pushed to 2012 instead of 2011.Around 12:30, the Crédit abandoned agricultural 4.9% to 9.472 euros, underperforming the sector index Stoxx 600 European banks (-2.13%). BNP Paribas and Societe Generale fell by 3.3% and 4.6%.

Battered stock market because of fears surrounding its exposure to the crisis in Greek, the title Credit Agricole sells more than 22% since January 1. Pressed by the market, the bank eventually amount to 850 million euro exposure to sovereign debt Greek."We realize qu'Emporiki always weighs more heavily on agricultural credit, with a cost of risk emerges from 450 million euros more than expected in the original plan," said Tom Bartholomew, head of credit research at Louis Capital Market.

Standardization in 2013

The economic crisis in Greece was in fact forced Crédit Agricole to harden its scenario losses on credit, which is increased by 450 million euros between 2010 and 2013. According to the bank, the cost of risk will normalize in 2013. Leaded by two successive years of losses in 2008 and 2009, Emporiki has also been recapitalized in March by Credit Agricole, to the tune of 989 million euros.

Its parent company now estimates qu'Emporiki will have a "specific need" for 550 million of additional capital by the end of 2011 to confront the crisis and complete its restructuring.Taken to a drastic plan to reduce its costs, the Greek subsidiary of Crédit Agricole had already planned last year to reduce its overhead 21% and close 57 branches, resulting in the departure of 1,500 employees.

The French bank believes that the decline in enrollment of Emporiki will be "faster" in 2010 but "slower than anticipated in 2011. In this scenario, the operating rate of Emporiki will improve faster than expected in 2011 to 62.5% instead of 68.8%.

Wall Street opens in the red after use in the U.S.

The New York Stock Exchange opened down sharply Friday after the release of monthly statistics of employment in the United States, generally poorer than expected.

The U.S. economy has destroyed 131,000 non-farm jobs in July, mainly because of the end of temporary contracts linked to the census, and the private sector hired less than expected.

Economists and analysts polled by Reuters on average expected destruction of 65,000 jobs.

A few minutes after the start of trading, the Dow Jones lost 0.7% to 10,600.59 points, the Standard & Poor's 500 gave up 0.72% to 1117.69 points and the Nasdaq in 2273 yielded 0.83%, 99.

The persistence of high unemployment (the rate remained unchanged at 9.5% last month) is seen as an obstacle to sustained recovery and statistics on Friday are likely to feed fears of a prolonged weak growth or a relapse into recession.

"What it mostly means is that our economy is stagnating.We are not creating jobs, or it should be the case now, "said Wayne Thomas, head of analysis at John Thomas Financial.

The statistics of the labor market may affect the speech will keep the Federal Reserve after its monetary policy meeting next Tuesday, even if the market anticipates no change in interest rates.

Among the main contributors to the decline of the Dow are industry groups such as 3M (-1.2%) and Boeing (-1.4%).

Among the few values increase in the index, gained 1.3% Kraft Foods after its results.The number one food in North America has published a quarterly profit above expectations and raised its target to reduce costs after the acquisition of Cadbury.

American International Group took over 3.5% after its own results and the announcement of the opening of discussions for an early withdrawal of the state capital.

Wall Street ends in red, anxious for employment

Wall Street ended lower on Thursday, concerned about the unexpected rise in jobless claims and mixed numbers on sales of major distributors in July, which underlined the fragility of the economic climate on the eve of the monthly employment statistics.

The Dow Jones closed at a decline of 5.45 points, or 0.05%, to 10,674.98.The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 1.43 point (-0.13%) to 1,125.81 and the Nasdaq composite 10.51 points assigned to (-0.46%) to 2293.06.

The jobless claims rose to 479,000 last week, while the market awaited them down.

This figure disappointed investors and urged them to exercise caution on the eve of the monthly report on employment in the Department of Labor, which should show a further rise in the unemployment rate in July.

"The entries do not persist in fall and this could foreshadow a bad time tomorrow," said Bruce Zaro, responsible for technical strategist for Delta Global Advisors.

Economists polled by Reuters expect for July 65.000 jobs were non-agricultural, particularly because of the end of many fixed-term contracts in the public related to the decennial census of population.The private sector, he should have created 90,000 jobs.

These uncertainties on the employment front are fears of a continued weak consumer spending, the main engine of the U.S. economy.

As for July, 28 retailers tracked by Thomson Reuters have reported an increase of 2.9% over one year of their store sales, while analysts had forecast to 3.1%.

NEWS CORP SOUGHT AFTER RESULTS

The Morgan Stanley sector yielded 0.35%.

Several values of the retail sales of which have consistently been disappointed penalized, like JC Penney, which yielded 7.7%, and Dillards (-5.2%).

"We are now in a situation where dollars are increasingly scarce in the pockets of consumers, thus able to compete for these dollars is intensifying," said Lawrence Creatura, manager at Federated Clover Investment Advisers.

If July is the 11th month of improvement in retail sales according to data from Thomson Reuters, analysts point out that comparisons to last year will be less favorable over the month.

Large groups have published their results on Wednesday or Thursday experienced divergent fates: while News Corp. gained 3.6% thanks to strong performance of its cable networks and the resumption of advertising revenue from its newspapers, Viacom yielded nearly 1 %, analysts have been disappointed by the stagnation of its turnover.

Also note the sharp increase in fertilizer producers, such as CF Industries (+3.5%) and Mosaic (+1.8%) in the wake of wheat prices after the announcement of the interruption of Russian exports .

In after-hours trading just after the closing, Kraft Foods gained 2.8% in response to the publication of its quarterly. The title had ended in decline 0.3% on the New York Stock Exchange.

Axa, focus on margins rather than growth in 2010

Axa announced Wednesday better than expected financial results for the first half despite an increase in half-mast, a performance in line with its objective to give priority to the recovery in margins rather than its development.

The second group of European insurance by market capitalization has reaffirmed its commitment to reallocate capital to its geographical margins of the most promising, even to withdraw from certain activities in mature areas.

"That does not mean that we do not have aggressive strategies in certain areas at present" said CEO Henri de Castries, and in an interview broadcast by the insurance group.

The manager has shown this strategy through the recent sale of several business lines in Britain and a willingness to invest in countries and trades in Asia, South America or Eastern Europe.

"This strategy is not as simple as when the whole world was growing at the same pace," he said.

Axa has benefited in the first half of rebounding financial markets and a better performance of its life insurance business, savings and pensions business, which offset the damage, which has suffered many natural disasters earlier this year .

NO CHANGE OF SENTIMENT

If these results are rather a good surprise, two analysts issued notes in the wake of the results fell they should not substantially change investor sentiment vis-à-vis the company.

At 09:15, the title was up 1.4% at 14.94 euros, after opening up over 2.6%, while the CAC 40 index yielded 0.2%.

Axa has lost about 10.9% since the beginning of the year, underperforming the European index DJStoxx insurance, which gained 3.16% over the same period.

The group's net profit stood at 944 million euros, a figure well above the 623 million approached by the consensus of analysts conducted by the editor of Reuters.

If the result is displayed down 28% over the same period last year, this drop is due to the supply of 1.478 billion euros spent by the group following the sale of assets United Kingdom, cited by Henri de Castries.

Without this extraordinary loss, net income would rise by 81% while revenues only increased it by 1% to 49.925 billion euros.

The decline in operating income amounted to 3% to 2.082 billion euros, superior performance under one billion to 1.884 to Reuters.

Axa has not commented on the offer of 11.5 billion dollars from the National Australia Bank on its subsidiary AXA Asia Pacific.

The subsidiary has announced a profit of 219.2 million Australian dollars for the first six months of the year, a figure in line with market expectations.

The offer, which clashed with the Australian authorities to the competition runs until August 31.

Car registrations fell by 12.9% in July in France

Registrations of new cars in France fell 12.9% in July over a year to reach 169,804 units with the continued weakening of the effect "scrappage" announced the Committee of French Automobile (CCFA).

The month of July had 21 working days, against 22 last year.A comparable number of working days, the decline in sales stood at 8.7%.

Of the first seven months of 2010, registrations in France, however, still stand up 2.8% in raw data to 1,382,240 units, and 2.1% in comparable number of working days compared the same period of 2009.

Sales only French brands fell 15.4% in July, while those of foreign brands fell 9.9%.

Car sales of PSA Peugeot Citroen shrank 15.0% last month, and those of Renault were down 7.6%.

Registrations only Dacia (Logan, Sandero and Duster) jumped 47.5% on month, while those of Renault fell 15.9%.

For PSA, sales of the Citroen were down by 17.0% and Peugeot were down by 13.3%.