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Despite sluggish growth, employment improves

It's the only bright spot in the dark landscape cyclical French: the labor market continued to regain strength. In the second quarter, 68,300 jobs were created in the nonprofit sector. This is 10,000 more than in the first quarter.

The tertiary sector contributes almost exclusively to these creations (57,200 jobs), the industry confirms his recovery: 6600 jobs were created in this sector, according to Insee. This is his second consecutive quarter of growth. "This sector lost jobs every quarter since 2001," says INSEE.

Only government minister to be able to celebrate yesterday, Xavier Bertrand (Labour, Employment, Health) welcomed that "210,600 jobs a year (have) been created." He sees "a positive signal about the vitality of the real economy." This movement is all the more surprising that growth has been sluggish in recent months.

"You have to look at the figure of 0% over the period issued yesterday: considering the annual growth and relating to the last four quarters, we see that the quarterly growth rate is invariably French 0.4%, says Frédéric Gonand, associate professor of economics at Paris Dauphine. This shows that even with 1.6% annual rate, which corresponds to its potential growth, France is creating jobs. "

According to Dares, the index of the basic monthly wage (SMB) increased by 0.6% in the second quarter, representing an increase of 2.1% over one year. This significant increase of basic wages does not mean a sharp increase in the purchasing power of households. In the second quarter, prices rose 0.5% year on year and they operate around 2%.The purchasing power has improved very little, which explains the weakness of consumption in recent months.

Disinflation energy

But-and this is another rare good news in the farm figures released yesterday, according to Insee, the consumer prices fell by 0.4% in July. A decline mainly due balances but also by the expansion of energy prices. Under these conditions, if the job market continues to grow at the same pace as earlier this year, the disposable income of households could improve a little.

"Disinflation energy currently underway should provide some support the purchasing power of households," say economists at Natixis.The main pillar of the French economy will be a little stronger in the second half, provided that the fiscal savings provided by the government do not result in a tax grab too much, the experts continue to Natixis.

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The Paris Bourse expected a slight increase

European stock exchanges succeed they continue their rebound started the day before? Investors should prove once again nervous at the end of a week marked by extreme market volatility, which saw the CAC 40 push the psychological threshold of 3000 points during trading Thursday before returning to the colors.

Friday morning, the Paris index is expected a slight increase of 0.4%. Thursday, ACC closed up 2.59% to 3089.66 points, after falling in mid-session. The day before, the Paris index plunged more than 5%. The same volatility dominates in Frankfurt the Dax closed up 3.28% and in London where the FTSE-100 index gained 3.11%.

Investors were reassured by the announcement of a meeting between Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on August 16 to issue joint proposals on the governance of the euro area.In addition, U.S. markets were supported by two good indicators of the jobless and real estate. Wall Street has ended sharply higher: the Dow Jones has gained 4% and the Nasdaq 4.69%.

Another announcement that should bring some calm markets: such as Belgium, Spain and Italy, France announced Thursday the ban on short selling in the securities of eleven banks and insurance companies to counter the extreme volatility of the stock market values. Among the relevant securities, BNP Paribas, which issued a statement Thursday night to reaffirm the strength of its capital, Societe Generale and Credit Agricole online payday loans.

No growth in the second quarter

On the macroeconomic front, INSEE reported this morning from zero growth in the second quarter in France (0.0%), against an increase of 0.9% in the first quarter.Inflation also slowed: the consumer prices fell by 0.4% in July, resulting in an increase of 1.9% over the year (against 2.1% from June 2010 to June 2011 ).

Oil is, meanwhile, resumed its decline in trade in Asia, having recovered Thursday in the United States. In morning trading, a barrel of "light sweet crude" lost 47 cents to 85.25 dollars and that of Brent North Sea fell by 57 cents to 107.45 dollars.

Other values ​​to follow, Europacorp, the production company of Luc Besson, Thursday reaffirmed its goal of a return to balance for the current year, despite a sharp decline in sales the first quarter.

Derichebourg Thursday confirmed its target of improving its annual net income, after recording a sharp increase in sales over the first nine months of the year.

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New Storm on the Paris Stock Exchange

New slump in the Paris Bourse. At the close on Wednesday, the CAC 40 index showed a loss of 5.45% to 3002.99 points and manages to maintain a narrow margin the psychological threshold of 3000 points. In a volume of trade of 6 billion euros, the volatility was again very strong.

Like him, other European indices loosen: the FTSE-100 index in London lost 3.05% to 5007.16 points at closing. The Dax in Frankfurt tumbles 5.13% to 5613.42 points after falling 6% during the session. The index featured the Milan Stock Exchange, the FTSE Eb, closed Wednesday on a drop of 6.65% at 14,676 points, its lowest level since April 2009. The Madrid Stock Exchange closed on a fall of 5.49%.

The banking sector collapses

All markets are penalized by the banking sector, while Greece is planning to expand its exchange program to include obligations of the securities in the longer term, which penalizes first private creditors. In Paris, Societe Generale gives 14.47 (after a 20.83% drop in session) to 22.18 euros, Crédit Agricole 11.81% to 6.07 euros, BNP Paribas 9.47% to 35.61 euros and Natixis 9.11% to 2.68 euros.

Banks have suffered rumors of degradation of the note of France, while Moody's, Fitch and Standard & Poors reiterated that the AAA rating of the Hexagon was accompanied by a stable outlook online cash advance. Even Bercy denies "formally" the rumors of degradation.But the surprise meeting convened by Nicolas Sarkozy interrupted his holiday to deal with several ministers the theme of economic and financial crisis has rekindled investor concerns.

Also in Europe, the divisions between countries are delaying the implementation of the rescue plan agreed in June In addition, fears of renewed extension of the debt crisis in Italy explains the new fall. The market is concerned about the ability of Italian banks to refinance.

Industrial production declined in France

As on Wall Street, markets been unable to continue the strong rebound in the day that followed the speech by U.S. Federal Reserve.The latter, however, assured that it would extend its monetary policy ultra-accommodating while maintaining zero interest rates until at least mid-2013 and exploring other measures to support the U.S. economy, which will probably end detailed August, at the final communiqué of the U.S. central bank. But the Fed confirmed that the U.S. economy is in trouble, especially since the deterioration in the debt rating of American long-term.

For the economist Nicolas Bouzou, the previous day had already not reassuring:

The player is used by default in the articles of figaro.fr. Maj7

Riots in London, the press questioned the role of the BlackBerry

The day after a second night of riots in the suburbs of London, the British press is concerned about the impact of new technologies in organizing rallies. If the use of Twitter and Facebook was highlighted during Arab riots in recent months, a new player is on Monday stormed the British media: the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), who played a key role in events.

BBM is a service available only on BlackBerry brand phones, allowing users to exchange messages for free via the Internet, and not through the telephone network. Messages can be exchanged only if both corresponding to communicate their personal code (PIN) before.The interception of messages by a third party, or by the police is complicated.

The principle of BBM is similar to that of SMS, to the last detail BBM messages that cost nothing. One argument that has made the BlackBerry smartphone's favorite British adolescents (37%), according to a study cited by the Guardian. For The Urban Blog Mashup, taken by the Telegraph, BBM is very popular among young 'for three reasons: it's fast, it's free, and unlike Facebook or Twitter, the messages exchanged are completely private. " .

"The gangs have been using BlackBerry for organizing the riots"

"The device, previously reserved for businessmen and politicians, are now the preserve of thugs and young (…) through this application," says the Telegraph.The conservative daily notes and Mark Duggan, the young man whose death was the cause of the night of riots in Tottenham, had sent a message via BBM to his girlfriend shortly before being shot by police. "The message said: 'The cops follow me,'" wrote the daily.

"The gangs have been using BlackBerry for organizing the riots," says the Telegraph. A Guardian journalist is in the same direction, explaining that "many sources (him) confirmed that BBM, inciting to raid the town of Enfield, was heavily circulated on the BlackBerry network Sunday early afternoon noon ". The journalist claims to have read other messages about plundering six other districts in north London on Monday night. "There is no doubt that BBM is used to organize the violence."

The BBC website, he does not deny the use of BBM in the events of the weekend, minimizing its impact."While smartphones have helped those who participated in the riots, they were certainly not convinced those who were not interested to join rallies," writes the site based on the analysis of Dr. Chris Greer, Professor of Sociology and Criminology at City University in London. For its part, RIM, the manufacturer of BlackBerry phones, said Monday in the evening he would "cooperate fully with the Interior Ministry and the British police force."

British police monitors Twitter users

Scotland Yard warned on Monday that it would arrest any person to become involved in urban riots on Twitter. "Provocative and inappropriate messages were posted on Twitter" during the weekend, said the British police.The Times cites several messages such as "Everyone at Tottenham n **** the police, I hope that there will be a dead tonight" (the message has since been deleted).

For its part, the Telegraph has collected pictures of rioters and that of a young man posing in front of several games he had stolen during the violence. "Do you know? Send us an email if you have any information, "wrote the site, without specifying for what purpose he seeks to know the identity of these people.

The United States lost their "AAA" rating

The penalty was expected but it still sounds like a shock. In the night from Friday to Saturday, the rating agency Standard and Poor's (S & P) has dared to lower the rating for government debt of the United States, and deprived of their "AAA" for the first time in history . S & P said in a statement it had degraded to the next level this note, the best possible, to bring it to 'AA +'. It also lowered its outlook to "negative", which means that Standard and Poor's believes that the next time the note will change, it will be to be devalued again. The United States were rated "AAA" by S & P since the creation of this agency in 1941.They remain in the other two major agencies, Moody's Dean (since 1917) and Fitch Ratings.

Standard and Poor's, which had warned in April that it was considering lowering, justified its decision with "political risks" to see the country taking insufficient measures against its budget deficit. For her, the political debate on these issues is not up to the problems caused by a debt of more than 14,500 billion. "The plan for balancing the budget on which Congress and the Executive have recently agreed is insufficient compared to what, in our view, would be needed to stabilize the dynamics in the medium term public debt" said S & P, citing the law known as "control the budget" passed Tuesday.

S & P is the second rating agency to downgrade the American note, after the Chinese – less powerful – Dagong.Other – mostly American and French Moody's Fitch – are currently at Triple A.

The U.S. public debt to more than 100% of GDP

The first power of the world is, well, so sure before. The United States and joined Japan, Spain and Ireland have lost that status envied payday loan lenders. The loss of this seal of excellence is expected brutal impact on the financial markets, difficult to imagine right now. But while the financial world is upside down, the risk that markets continue to dive is high. The announcement of S & P comes in effect when the markets were closed for the weekend, closing on both sides of the Atlantic one week black.

China, by far the world's largest creditor United States, found that she had "every right now to require the United States to address their structural problems of debt."Second World holder of U.S. debt, Tokyo assured him that his confidence in the U.S. Treasury and its strategy of purchasing these bonds were unchanged. In France, the Minister of Economy Baroin reiterated his "total confidence in the strength of the U.S. economy."

Two days ago, the U.S. debt has passed a symbolic milestone. Because it exceeded the threshold of 100% of GDP, just after raising the debt ceiling by Congress. The United States saw their public finances sealed by the harsh recession that crossed their economy from late 2007 to mid-2009. Since then, economic growth has returned, but they are not able to restore the health of their public finances. According to estimates by the International Monetary Fund, they should acknowledge this year, with about 9% of GDP, the highest budget deficit of the G20 countries, except Japan.It is sixteen countries rated "AAA" by Standard and Poor's, four of the G7: Germany, Canada, France and Great Britain.

(With AFP and Reuters)

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The Standard & Poor's removed the "AAA" rating from the U.S.

The rating agency Standard and Poor's lowered the rating Friday on the public debt of the United States, deprived of their "AAA" for the first time in their history. S & P said in a statement it had lowered the rating a notch, the best possible, to bring it to 'AA +'. It also downgraded the outlook to "negative", which means that Standard and Poor's believes that the next time the note will change, it is to be lowered again. The United States were rated "AAA" by S & P since the creation of this agency in 1941. They remain in the other two major agencies, Moody's Dean (since 1917) and Fitch Ratings.

Standard and Poor's, which had warned in April that it was considering lowering, justified its decision with "political risks" to see the country taking insufficient measures against its budget deficit.For her, the political debate on these issues is not up to the problems caused by a debt of more than 14,500 billion. "The plan for balancing the budget on which Congress and the Executive have recently agreed is insufficient compared to what, in our view, would be needed to stabilize the dynamics in the medium term public debt" said S & P, citing the law known as "control the budget" passed Tuesday.

"The last victim of the failure of President Obama"

John Chambers, President of the Evaluation Committee of S & P, said Friday on CNN that Washington could have prevented the lowering of the notes within the ceiling earlier. He said the responsibilities were shared by the Administration and Obama, but also "the previous administration." The first political reaction in Washington have shown blocking pointed to by S & P.Mitt Romney, candidate for the Republican primary, has called the reduction of "latest victim of the failure of Obama on the economy." The Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid, has instead called for "a balanced approach to deficit reduction," with spending cuts but also increases targeted taxes, it rejected the Republicans, under pressure ultra-conservative "tea parties", when discussing the debt.

For its part, the U.S. government has accused S & P based its decision on serious errors in calculations payday loan. "An appraisal contains an error of 2000 billion dollars speaks for itself," said the press spokesman of the Department of the Treasury. U.S. media said the government had severely challenged the projections of analysts of the agency after reviewing the findings of S & P. In vain."We take our responsibilities very seriously, and if at the end of our analysis, the commission concludes that a note is not to where it should be, it is our duty to make this decision" justified Reuters responsible for rating sovereign debt within the S & P, David Beers.

China demands U.S. action

The loss of this seal of excellence is expected brutal impact on the financial markets, difficult to imagine right now. The U.S. Treasury is an undisputed reference: a standard cost of money, an instrument normally used as "collateral" (guarantee) in a variety of transactions, and a refuge for investors in troubled times. "Uncertainty about the effects on the market is high," said recently the investment bank Goldman Sachs, exploring the potential consequences.The lowering of this note should indeed force investors to reassess risk widespread.

The S & P announcement came as the markets had closed for the weekend, but initial reactions are mixed from Asia. The Japan, the second holder of U.S. debt world, assured that his confidence in the U.S. Treasury and its strategy of purchasing these bonds were unchanged. But China, by far the world's largest creditor United States, found that she had "every right now to require the United States to address their structural problems of debt."

The United States had their public finances sealed by the harsh recession that crossed their economy from late 2007 to mid-2009. Since then, economic growth has returned, but they are not able to restore the health of their public finances.According to estimates by the International Monetary Fund, they should acknowledge this year, with about 9% of GDP, the highest budget deficit of the G20 countries, except Japan. It is sixteen countries rated "AAA" by Standard and Poor's, four of the G7: Germany, Canada, France and Great Britain.

(With AFP and Reuters)

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Axa was less affected by Greece that the banks

A nice trading day for Axa. The title of the insurer took 4% to 10 o'clock Thursday morning while the CAC 40 is given a little air, with an increase of 0.45%. Investors welcomed the good half done by the insurer that has quadrupled (324%) profit to 3.99 billion euros.

This performance is significantly higher than the expectations of analysts who had expected an average net profit of 3.7 billion. But Axa has mostly benefited from a favorable base effect. The increase in net income is in fact supported by exceptional gains of 1.44 billion euros from the sale of the 15.6% of Veolia capital of the life insurer China Life Taikang and the sale of its New Zealand and Australia."In this environment (of European debt crisis), we publish the results are good, satisfactory and show Axa's fine," said CFO Gerald Harlin, during a conference call.

Confirmation of the Plan 2015

The insurer stands in relation to banks about the impact of the Greek crisis on its accounts no faxing payday loans. While the financial cost runs into hundreds of millions for BNP Paribas (850 million), Crédit Agricole (650 million) and 395 million to Société Générale, Axa has placed "only" 92 million euros in provisions for impairment assets in its bond portfolio of the Greek state.

In contrast, exposure of the insurer in Italy, estimated at 6 billion euros against 300 million for Greece, is much more important."We are confident that Italy is absolutely the means to repay its debt, simply that the European institutions give a stronger signal of support towards Italy for the markets calm down," said Denis Duverne, the deputy CEO of Axa Business on BFM radio.

If the macroeconomic environment remains uncertain because of the turmoil in financial markets, the CEO of Axa, Henri de Castries is "confident". It provides Axa is on track to achieve its 2015 targets.

Wall Street down before the Senate vote

Wall Street starts again in the red on Tuesday. In early trade, the Dow Jones lost 0.57% at 12,063 points, the Nasdaq 0.51% to loose 2731 points and the S & P drops 0.69% to 1279 points.

The opening is dominated by pessimism as consumer spending of U.S. households fell against all odds by 0.2% in June, posting their first decline since September 2009. Economists surveyed on average expected a rise in expenditure of 0.2%.

The expected green light from Senate Tuesday evening

Concerning the agreement on raising the debt ceiling, the doubts persist. "Some have pointed to the fact that the rating agency S & P claimed four trillion dollars in deficit reduction over 10 years against only 2.5 trillion currently being negotiated by members, analysts said Aurel BGC.Maintaining the "AAA" is far from being elected … Many skeptics have left open the possibility of adoption of this agreement by the Congress. "An expected adoption tonight. The Senate must decide, in fact, after the House of Representatives that preceded it from that Monday night.

"I think the show we attended in Washington, a significant number of parliamentarians of this country leaving the threat of a default, really made a lot of damage to the confidence" of investors in the economy American, for his part, said U.S. Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithnern, on ABC.

Oil side, the opening of the Nymex, oil prices melt, due to poor statistqies the day, who fear a future decline in demand.To 15 hours, a barrel of "light sweet crude" for September delivery was trading at 94.36 dollars, down 53 cents.

Results of companies to follow the corporate side, several major publications are planned this week, starting on Tuesday by Pfizer (-1.05% to 18.81 dollars). The group released better than expected earnings for the second quarter, the jump in sales of animal health products offsetting lower sales of drugs, the heart of the business group.

Google (stable at 606.71 dollars) this weekend began testing a new service, "Google Hotel Finder", dedicated to finding hotels. Positioned competitor specialized sites like Hotels.com "Hotel Finder Google" is used to search the dates of their choice, depending on the number of stars of the institution and the average scores given by customers.

Hewlett-Packard (-0.48% to 35.03 dollars) has decided to drop now $ 50 U.S. price of its new tablet, the TouchPad. This rate adjustment, presented as a promotion valid until September 10, is valid until September 10.He places the version of the tablet features a 16GB storage to 449.99 dollars, and the 32 GB to 549 dollars, just one month after the beginning of the commercialization of TouchPad.

Coach (-4.72% to 62.31 dollars), a leading U.S. brands of accessories, recorded a jump of 24% of its annual net profit in 2010-2011 (year ended July 2) at 881 million dollars, and expected to grow over 10% in the future, according to a statement released Tuesday.

Hyatt Hotels (1.96% to 39.52 euros) announced earnings for the second quarter better than expected, while saying he intended to open a number of "significant" new hotels in the future.

GM (-0.79% to 27.87 dollars) reported Tuesday a 7.6% increase in sales of vehicles in the U.S. in July, thanks to strong sales of Chevrolet, the one of the leading brands of the manufacturer, and the good performance of new models.

Raids by giants of video games on small publishers are ongoing. After the announcement of a Memorandum of surrender by PopCap Games Electronic Arts (0.32% to 22.02 dollars) and the acquisition by Zynga a mobile games publisher in Canada, is the Japanese Sony which went on the offensive by offering Sucker Punch. The American development studio publishes games for consoles, the PlayStation family, including "Sly Cooper" (PS) and "inFamous' (PS3).The amount of the transaction were not disclosed.

Amerigroup (7.47% to 51.65 dollars) is expected to jump at the opening, title, earning more than 5% in electronic trading before the opening of Wall Street. The group of health care services announced yesterday it has won a contract to develop its business in Texas.

The CAC 40 expected sharply higher

Relief. Is the word that should prevail today on all global exchanges, after U.S. lawmakers passed this night finally put to agree on raising the debt ceiling. At 8:15, future contracts on the CAC 40 advanced sharply from 1.39% to 3724.50 points.

Last week, the inability of the United States to solve the problem of public finances had weighed on investor sentiment. In Paris the CAC 40 was indeed touched its lowest level in session year (3,630.75 points), while Wall Street finished its worst week in a year, despite the intervention of Obama Friday in an attempt to reassure debt.

After the relief 10 days ago on Greek sovereign debt, the calm would return to the Paris financial center.After weeks of negotiations, elected Democrats and Republicans have indeed finally found common ground on the amount of new ceiling, avoiding the world's largest economy is in default of payment in the coming days. According to preliminary information provided by the White House, the debt ceiling would be raised to 2.1 trillion dollars, which breathe new life in the United States on the forehead of the debt until 2013, after the presidential elections. This agreement in principle will also enable the countries to continue to borrow on the markets beyond the August 2 deadline set by the Treasury.

The reaction of rating agencies expected

On the other hand, no excessive optimism are to be expected in the financial markets today, at least until the U.S. Congress has not ratified the agreement. The first submission is expected to vote that day.Furthermore, few details have yet filtered on measures taken to reduce the deficit in the U.S., which does not exclude the possibility of deterioration in the rating of the sovereign debt of the United States.

For now, the first tranche of spending cuts of $ 1 trillion is expected. Then a bipartisan special committee of Congress will then be responsible for finding the end of November additional expenditure cuts amounting to 1.5 trillion dollars. A total of 2.5 trillion dollars in budget cuts, all over 10 years. From this point of view, the reaction of rating agencies in this agreement called the "medium term" should be widely followed by the markets.

On the currency front, the dollar has benefited only modestly from the announcement of the night, illustrating the temporary nature of such an agreement.Around 6:00, the euro slipped against the dollar at 1.4385 dollars against 1.4395 on Friday, but climbed against the yen at 111.67 yen against 110.41 Friday. For its part, the dollar set off again up significantly against the yen at 77.63 yen after briefly reached 78 yen, 76.73 yen against Friday night.

In terms of oil prices were up Monday morning in electronic trading in Asia, where the market relieved by this agreement in extremis. In morning trading, a barrel of "light sweet crude" for September delivery gained 1.53 dollars to 97.23 dollars. That of Brent North Sea crude for September delivery was appreciating $ 1.25 dollar to 117.99.

Macroeconomic side, investors should look carefully at the unemployment figures for the month of JuneOverseas are also expected to 4:00 p.m. construction spending for the month of June, the ISM manufacturing index for July.

As for values ​​to follow

Last week, the many semi-annual publications were rather disappointing, adding to the nervousness of investors. The pace slows publications this week, though are expected in the next three days the details of the interim bank values ​​(Tuesday BNP Paribas, Societe Generale on Wednesday and Thursday Axa and Natixis).

Eiffage reported a slight slowdown in growth in the second quarter despite a sharp rebound from its construction activities, the division of public works who registered a decrease over the period.

Outremer Telecom.A draft tender offer simplified to the telecom operator was introduced by OMT Invest, a structure controlled by Axa Private Equity, according to a notice to the Financial Markets Authority (AMF) and released Friday.

EDF Energies Nouvelles (EDF ENR) has entered into exclusive negotiations with Capital Perceva to cede control of Supra, the fund feeds the project to file a simplified takeover bid at the end of the process.

General Health issued a sharp drop in operating profit in the first half due to exceptional items, but its revenue rose due to higher acute care stays.

Recylex published Friday sales for the second quarter increased significantly, from 32% to 125.34 million euros, supported by an increase of 48% of its business in recycling lead thanks to rising 16 % of lead prices and increased sales volumes.

Air Liquide. The gas giant reported Monday a 11% increase in net profit in the first half, to 750 million euros.It maintained its forecast a "steady increase" in net profit for the year.

Note that Gameloft will publish its interim results after market close, while Le Noble Age unveil at the same time state sales for the same period. The British bank HSBC, which is listed in Paris, finally published its results for the first six months of the year.

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