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.
Plastic Omnium said Thursday confident the second half after a first half of the year marked a rebound in net income and revenue thanks to the automobile and the environment.
The group specializes in large plastic parts for the vehicle (body and tanks) or for the collection of waste (containers), posted first half net profit of 72.3 million euros, against eight million a year earlier.The results of the last six months is more than double that achieved all of 2009.
"The activities of Compagnie Plastic Omnium will continue to appear dynamically in the second half of 2010," the group said in a statement.
The title, which earns more than 106% since the beginning of the year, bringing its market capitalization to nearly $ 700 million, has risen by 4.5% to 39.82 euros ten minutes after the opening of trading Paris.
If the turnover of Plastic Omnium has fallen 15% in France, total sales were up by 28.5% to 1.52 billion thanks to a near doubling of sales in North America and Asia.
Emerging markets (Brazil, Russia, India and China) now account for 9% of turnover Automotive Group, a proportion expected to rise "significantly in the next three years," said Plastic Omnium.
This balance, which specifically involves the construction of five new plants should help offset the slowdown in the European car market anticipated the second half of the year with the gradual disappearance of the last car scrapping.
Plastic Omnium has also stated that the acquisition of 50% of the Belgian Solvay Inergy Automotive Systems, a leading global fuel systems and fuel tanks, which the project was announced in June, is expected to close shortly and completed by the end of the year if the competition authorities give green light to the operation.
In the environment, the group's turnover increased by 6.2% in the first half thanks to the development of sorting and of underground containers for the collection.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has decided to keep Anne Lauvergeon at the head of Areva, said Tuesday radio France Info.
Rumors evicting Anne Lauvergeon circulating since the beginning of the year, partly because of dissension in the camp and the French nuclear setback in late 2009 with the loss of a major contract in the UAE.
The decision by the Head of State was expected. In late May, a government source had told the Echo that "exception error on his part brilliantly, it will remain until the end of its mandate" in July 2011.
Anne Lauvergeon has been appointed for the first time as President of the Executive Board of Areva in July 2001. His mandate was renewed in July 2006 and expires in one year.
Airbus announced that it garnered 131 gross orders in the first half, thanks to the mega-command of 32 A380s from Emirates announced in June at the show in Berlin.
A subsidiary of EADS, which shows 117 net orders adjusted for cancellations, said it had delivered 250 aircraft since the beginning of the year, including seven A380.
The order from Emirates, which had enabled Airbus to open with fanfare the Berlin air show, however usually less prolific ones Farnborough (England) or Le Bourget, is estimated at some 11 billion dollars based on list price purely indicative.
Airbus also won 27 orders in the first half for the single-aisle A320s and 25 A350-900.On both models, Boeing has received command of the Brazilian airline TAM also announced in Berlin for 20 A320s and five A350-900s with a total value estimated at $ 2.9 billion at list prices.
The backlog of the manufacturer revealed six cancellations A330-300 in June, including two from the Finnish airline Finnair.
Airbus did not identify the company behind the other four cancellations of orders for A330s, but industry observers have estimated that Gulf Air (Bahrain,) four units could reduce its order for 20 A330s.
According to the latest data from Airbus, DAE Capital (Dubai), who said renegotiate its orders with Airbus and Boeing, has so far not received his order of 100 Airbus.
France is in progress on structural reforms, which implies that there are now fewer risks today than the note of France has deteriorated, said Friday at a Reuters television analyst ratings agency Fitch.
The government of François Fillon has pledged to reduce its deficits and this week announced a reform of the pension system.
Asked if it was less risky than sovereign debt rating lowered or French today than a month or two, David Riley, director of sovereign ratings at Fitch, said: "Yes, well safe ".
"France is much more than it did before, particularly when it announced a stabilization plan and with no details," he said.
A project to reform the French government aims to restore financial equilibrium of pension schemes in 2018, in particular through the gradual increase of 60-62 years in 2018 the legal age of retirement.
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