Discussions on provision by France to the Russian carrier helicopters Mistral continues in concrete, said Tuesday the Elysee and the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The issue was discussed during an interview Nicolas Sarkozy with the Russian ministries of Defence and Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov and Anatoly Serdyoukov present in Paris for a meeting of the Council of French-Russian cooperation on security issues (CCQS).
Both sides agreed that the latest contacts on the back Mistral were "encouraging", said the French presidency.
"We are continuing our discussions with great confidence.This is the message that both the Russian and the president expressed "she added.
Sergei Lavrov confirmed that assessment.
"Negotiations are ongoing and concrete," he said at a press conference with French Foreign Minister and Defence Minister Bernard Kouchner and Hervé Morin. "These negotiations are about the transfer of technology."
Bernard Kouchner told a French delegation visited Moscow a week ago to continue the negotiations continued in Paris on Tuesday.
"We trust and negotiations are continuing.The technical negotiations on the transfer of technology ", he said.
RUSSIAN POSITION UNCHANGED, SAYS LAVROV
The head of Russian diplomacy said that the Russian position had not changed from what President Dmitry Medvedev announced last March, namely that negotiations were "exclusive" with France.
Russia has yet announced the end of August to launch a tender for the supply of two helicopter carriers, while Nicolas Sarkozy had secured in late July that the contract would be to France, even if it was still being negotiated.
But Sergei Lavrov said that the launch of a tender being a mere legal issue and that the Russian government was compelled to submit.
On the tender, the Elysee said that Nicolas Sarkozy noted that he had been released in accordance with Russian legislation and said "understand this procedure.
Buildings Projection and Command (BPC) Mistral class have a length of nearly 200 meters long and weigh 21,300 tons.They can carry up to 16 helicopters and four barges carrying materials or two landing craft and 900 men.
They can also carry a heavy tank and quarantine host a headquarters capable of conducting a joint operation sea of limited size.
All these characteristics have worried the former Soviet Union republics such as Georgia or the Baltics, and the United States.
France has broken a taboo by agreeing to hand over these buildings to Russia, as this is the first export of high technology military equipment to a NATO countries to Russia.
But a French diplomat said he was not a high-tech equipment and that Moscow did not need for operations on its borders, since his land-based helicopters are perfectly capable of conducting missions in Georgia or the Baltics.
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.
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.
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 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.
The Nikkei ended down 0.23% Wednesday, penalized by concerns about the strong yen and doubts over the sustainability of U.S. economic recovery.
The Nikkei lost 21.63 points to 9,278.83 and the broader TOPIX, sold 2.9 points (0.35%) to 829.35.
While studies suggest that the Chartists fall posted recently by the Japanese stock markets draws to a close, the lack of enthusiasm shown by the indicators U.S. leaves investors hungry.
The other major concern is the expectations raised by the publication Friday of the test results of resistance experienced by 91 European banks.
For values, trading companies sector has experienced a painful session after the publication of an article revealing that Daiwa Securities Nikkei was likely to report a loss for the period April to June due to instability markets after the crisis of European sovereign debt.
Daiwa Securities dropped 3.46% and its rival Nomura Holdings fell 3.81%.
Pason Group meanwhile plunged 5.77%, the investment group of employees who predicted an annual loss due to the hardness of the labor market.
Wall Street has ended sharply higher on Tuesday, posting a sixth win in a row, in response to results and forecasts of Alcoa aluminum companies.
Alcoa reported Monday better than expected quarterly results while revising upwards its forecast for global demand for aluminum.
Alcoa shares closed up 1.2% to $ 11.
"The fact we think this trend (solid results) will contribute to re-confirm the risk in the market," said Peter Cardillo (Avalon Partners).
The Dow Jones gained 1.44% to 10,363.02 points. The S & P 500 has been 1.53% to 1095.29 points.The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 1.99% to 2242.03 points.
The S & P has gained over 5% last week, the highest weekly gain this year and scholars eagerly awaiting the results of companies to see if this rally is justified.
But the decline in volumes worries some analysts. The volume on Monday fell to a new low of six months, observes Scott Fullman (WJB Capital Group). He also noted a decrease in the total volume of options.
Low volumes generally pass to denote a lack of conviction of investors.The summer period, however, may also explain the slowdown.
Statistic of the day was the trade deficit widened in May to its highest level since November 2008.
The Apple stock has yielded 2% to 252.11 dollars, after the site specializes Consumer Reports had indicated that he did not recommend the iPhone 4, his tests have confirmed a loss of signal when the handset is required to somehow.
Action Research In Motion, maker of the Blackberry competitor, has instead increased from 3.35% to 55.6 million.
Intel, which was to publish its quarterly after the close, gained 2.14% to 21.01 dollars.
The auction site eBay jumped from 4% to 21.02 dollars.
And even if it is pursued by XPRT Ventures company which is claiming nearly four billion dollars in damages for alleged infringement of six patents related to the development of related payment systems such as PayPal.
Inflation in Germany slowed slightly more than expected in June according to first estimates released Monday, a move that could fuel concerns about possible deflationary risks threatening the euro area.
Consumer prices rose 0.9% yoy according to preliminary federal statistics, whereas their increase had reached 1.2% in May
Economists polled by Reuters last week had forecast an average price increase of 1.0% over one year.
This slowdown is largely due to lower gas prices, said the Federal Office of Statistics.
From month to month, inflation in Germany remained stable at 0.1%.
"The German economy appears to have avoided a deflation proper form but was still struggling to collect inflationary pressures," said Carsten Brzeski, economist at ING Financial Markets.
The slowdown in inflation in June coincided with the debate on the impact of German austerity plan on the other countries of the euro area.
Chancellor Angela Merkel presented in early action expected to generate 80 billion euros in budget savings over the next four years, in order to achieve by 2013 the German structural deficit within the limits set by the EU European.
Across the eurozone, inflation should slow to 1.5% yoy in June, against 1.6% in May
Details of the German statistics show that consumer prices calculated at European harmonized standards (HICP) remained stable in June compared to MayOn a year they show an increase of 0.8%, against 1.2% in May
These figures could provide an argument with officials of the European Central Bank (ECB) who argue for a continuation of measures to support the economy.
"We expect German inflation (annual rate) will end the year close to zero and there is some probability that it returns into negative territory," said Jennifer McKeown of Capital Economics.
"While many peripheral economies of the euro area are moving toward a long period of deflation, the ECB has every reason to maintain an attitude of a dove," she adds.
The first estimate of inflation over the past month is calculated based on published data from six Länder.The annual inflation has slowed in each of them in June
The Paris Bourse is distributed downward and fell below 3,600 points on Thursday mid-morning, the fears surrounding the sovereign debt of the euro area resurfacing and penalizing bank stocks.
In addition there are comments from the Federal Reserve of the United States, acknowledged Wednesday that a U.S. economic recovery faltering.
A significant gap between the yields (spreads) of debt Greek and German revived fears about the euro area.
The CAC 40 index, which opened in rebounding, losing 1.17% to 3599.27 points at 10:55, the next support lying at 3580.
BNP Paribas (-4.19%), Societe Generale (-3.01%), Dexia (-2.73%) and Credit Agricole (-3.05%) recorded the largest declines the CAC 40.
"The market fell because of Greece, the spreads diverge. It's affecting the banks," said a vendor.
Other major European markets have also turned down.
Raoul Sachs, edited by Dominique Reynolds
Sales of new cars in France have continued to rise in April, to 1.9% from April 2009, but at a much more slowly, reflecting an impact of declining car scrapping and leaving the uncertainty about the rest of the year.
"This figure is normal. We see a gradual reduction of the effects of scrappage" observes François Roudier, spokesman for the Committee of French car manufacturers.
The spokesman noted "a decline in registrations and orders on new line", small cars that benefited most from the car scrapping. Meanwhile, "we see a rise in average range on some models," he adds.
Carlos da Silva, an analyst at IHS Global Insight, a judge even when the result of April "a little surprising" and speaks of "semi-surprise"."The compact segment is doing rather better than what we expected" while "small cars to fall again mechanically," he notes.
Moreover, "manufacturers have continued to put much money on the table to try to compensate" the premium reduction. They have indeed offered to their customers numerous discounts and promotions. In this context, May will be "a little month of truth," said Carlos da Silva, who expects a decline it expected in April.
"I do not see how that can withstand much more, plus there is not really new models," he said.
French manufacturers are considering a European market decline 9 to 10% this year.1,000 euros last year, the scrapping bonus increased to 700 euro from 1 January, but for vehicles ordered before December 31, the premium remained at its former level for deliveries until the end of March.
This measure was prompted a boom in orders at the end of the year, registrations recorded in the first quarter up 17%. In the first four months of the year, the increase was 12.9% compared to the same period of 2009.
The Minister of Industry Christian Estrosi welcomed in a statement of "the good performance of the market", which "demonstrates the effectiveness of the government strategy of gradual withdrawal of the scrappage scheme".
On 1 July, the scrappage decline further, to 500 euros.
The month of April has been more favorable to French brands, up 8%, as foreign brands, down 4.9%.Of the 190,986 new cars registered last month, the French brands accounted for 56.1% of the market.
The increase was 17.2% for the Renault group and 7.3% for PSA Peugeot Citroen. At Peugeot, we judge that "the effect of scrappage continuous" and "concerns an order for two 206 + and 207," the Director of Commerce France, Olivier Veyrier, said in a statement.