Financial, Business, Personal Finance News

BP would have triggered the sale of its assets in Alaska

BP has relaunched the sale of its assets in Alaska after the collapse of talks for a sale to the American Apache in July, the Financial Times reported Monday.

Citing banking sources, the newspaper reported that Apache, which is based in Houston, Texas, is still face potential buyer.Occidental Petrolem Corp., another U.S. group, could also show interest.

The Financial Times says it is not known yet whether the British staff intends to sell its entire 26% stake in the Prudhoe Bay oil field, which includes a right of exploitation of the deposit payday loans.

BP is also in talks to sell assets in Vietnam and Venezuela as part of its plan to sell $ 30 billion to finance the cost of oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

On Friday, the oil group said that the cost of the disaster reached eight billion dollars now.

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 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.

French growth expected at 1.3% in 2011

The chances of achieving economic growth of 2.5% in France in 2011, as required by government depart according to a Reuters poll of economists, who consider the measures of fiscal consolidation in Europe will weigh on demand .

Seventeen economists polled by Reuters expect, thereby increasing the gross domestic product by 1.3% next year (median forecast), against 1.7% in a poll conducted in April equivalent.

The median forecast for 2010 is 1.3% against 1.4% in April.

"The austerity measures in France and neighboring countries will weigh on demand and we expect a decline in consumption and investment in a number of European countries," said Maxime Lemerle, an economist at Euler Hermes.

Economists now expect that consumer spending, a pillar of French growth, will increase by only 1.1% in 2011, when they expected 1.4% in April.

Over two thirds of French exports to Europe by the weak demand in the region should weigh heavily on trade, according to Maxime Lemerle, which forecasts growth of 1.1% of GDP in 2011, a cons, 8% previously.

The government expects growth to reach 2.5% annually between 2011 and 2013, which would help reduce the government deficit from 8% in 2010 to 6% in 2011, 4.6% in 2012 and 3% in 2013 .

Slower growth could lead to additional measures to reduce the deficit or raising taxes.

"If we have less growth, certain expenses will tend to increase as those related to employment. So I think they might have to raise taxes a bit," said Dominique Barbet, economist at BNP Paribas.

The Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said she would not rule to revise the growth forecast for 2011 after the publication in mid-August GDP figures for the second quarter.

His counterpart on the Budget, Baroin, said the deficit reduction targets were met, although growth was below forecast.

The government plans to reduce the deficit to 6% in late 2011, 40 billion euros less than in 2010.According Baroin, 15 billion will come from the extinction of the recovery plan, saving 14 billion and 11 billion of revenue increases.

Wall Street hesitates before the start of the season results

After three days of consecutive increase, Wall Street opened Friday on a tentative note, pending results of the first companies to be published next week.

A few minutes after the start of trading, the Dow Jones fell by 0.05%% to 10,133.70 points and the Standard & Poor's 500 by 0.07% to 1069.46 points while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0 , 09% to 2177.45 points.

If the optimism shown by State Street in mid-week its quarterly earnings outlook is considered auspicious by analysts for earnings season, investors prefer to wait for their actual publication, especially since there no important macroeconomic indicators on Friday.

The wait-market is reflected in low volumes and partly explains the volatility seen this week on Wall Street.

As for values, Boeing gained 0.12% after formally responded to the call for tender for the tanker to the U.S. Army.

Google took him 3.31% in favor of renewing its operating license by the Chinese authorities, a decision that allows the U.S. group to remain on the largest Internet market in the world.

Those countries that have met the challenge imposed on Greece

In exchange for the bailout unprecedented 110 billion euros, Greece agrees to follow an intensive austerity. This plan aims to reduce the deficit from 13.7% to 3%, and this in two years … An ambitious, some would say impossible … Yet other countries such as Ireland, Sweden and Finland, have succeeded in the past to reduce their deficit.

Those who managed …

The report on public finances published by the IMF in November 2009 lists the fiscal adjustment efforts of two dozen countries over the past 30 years. Ten countries have improved their finances more than 10 points. In 1989, Ireland had such success in lowering the deficit to 20 points, knowing that it still took him 11 years to get there … Another example: in 2000, Sweden and Finland have managed to reduce their deficit of 13.3 points, and that in 7 years.The IMF report notes that more than 20 countries have been able to adjust more than 5 points, their public balance: Japan by 8.1 points, 7.9 points in Italy, Germany by 5.3 points. However, there is no state that in two years. The most "fast" are Israel in 1983 (11.1 points in 3 years) and Cyprus in 1994 (5.2 points in 3 years).

So why Greece did it not happen? After all, she has already, according to IMF data, managed to reduce its deficit from 12.1 points in six years to reach 4.8% in 1995. Admittedly, the statistics of the Greek period are unreliable. Nevertheless, other countries have indeed succeeded in completing their program of readjustment.