The day after a session in the red, the U.S. stock markets end up the way to higher Tuesday. In early trade, the Dow gained 0.37% to 11,446 points, the Nasdaq advance of 0.45% to 2625 points and the S & P is 0.40% to 1209 points.
The progresison remains very cautious. U.S. operators, like their counterparts in Europe and Asia, remain very concerned about the issue of sovereign debt in Europe. They fear a contagion to other countries considered fragile in the euro area.The decision of Standard & Poor's lowered by one notch to "A +" to "A" note of Italy, due to low growth prospects, has just added to the failure of the meeting this weekend of European Ministers of Finance have failed to agree on a new loan to Greece, still under the threat of default.
The question of the future of Greece will remain central today. In Athens, after an initial conference call Monday night, a new meeting between the Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos and representatives of the troika of the country's creditors, European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, to be held tonight . Their verdict depends on the payment in October of $ 8 billion from the loan made last year in the euro area country and the IMF.Manna vital for the country to the brink of bankruptcy.
Pending around the Fed meeting
Hopes for recovery of the market, worried about the economic downturn hitting the United States and Europe, are now placed in the meeting of the Federal Reserve (Fed) which starts today and will end tomorrow.
The fears are in fact more and more vivid on the other side of the Atlantic, where Barack Obama announced a plan to further reduce the deficit of 3000 billion Monday, financed half by an increase in taxes for the rich, did not produce any relief.
On the macroeconomic front, the U.S., housing construction has increased its decline in August, falling to its lowest level since May, according to official figures published Tuesday in Washington.
Mergers and acquisitions continue
The side of values, the French computer group Bull and American Technologies CA (0.09% to 21.24 dollars) Tuesday announced an alliance to facilitate the switching of heterogeneous enterprise IT infrastructures to the Internet and the "cloud" ( cloud computing).
The Internet giant Google (-0.10% to 546.12 dollars) bought DailyDeal, German site group purchasing established in 2009 business cards design. Google, which offers this service for U.S. consumers, seeking to expand its presence outside the United States to reach the largest number of users and compete with its rivals in the field as Groupon.The amount of the acquisition were not disclosed.
The U.S. stock market watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) encourages U.S. companies to transparency regarding their income abroad, reports the Financial Times. The SEC, which has made this his new battle cry, drew particular groups such as Dow Chemical (-0.73% to 27.54 dollars) or Caterpillar (-0.28% to 84.36 dollars) share more information with investors.
After the close of Wall Street, Air Products (0.10% to 81.66 dollars) has announced a new share repurchase program of $ 1 billion.
The mergers and acquisitions also continue to multiply.According to reports the Times, Blackstone (-0.45% to 13.26 dollars) would buy with Prestige Brands of America (-0.73% to 9.46 dollars), a portfolio of non-prescription drugs worth £ 2 billion, owned by GlaxoSmithKline (0.07% to 41.54 dollars).
Jazz Pharmaceuticals Inc. (0.90% to 44.13 dollars) and Azur Pharma Ltd. (will merge to create Jazz Pharmaceuticals Plc, a pharmaceutical company based in Ireland and listed on NASDAQ.
Also in the pharmaceutical sector, Varian Medical Systems (1.16% to 53.05 dollars) will buy Calypso Medical Technologies, a company specializing in monitoring tumors during operations radiosurgery and radiotherapy for $ 10 million and contingent payments.
However, ConAgra Foods (0.21% to 23.44 dollars) withdrew its offer of Ralcorp Holdings (-0.23% to 75.06 dollars) due to "lack of constructive dialogue with Ralcorp."
Others are preparing to pass the act as Home Properties (-5.61 to 58.70 dollars) will conduct a capital increase of 5.25 million additional shares to finance "its external growth and new real estate development projects. "
Also note, a Court of Appeal in the United States lifted a court order blocking the payment of compensation of $ 18 billion by Chevron (-0.69% to 98.03 dollars) for environmental damage in the Amazon.
In addition, three complaints were filed against IBM (+0.11% to 173.32 dollars) from the European competition authorities, including one by a French company, have been abandoned, it was reported on Tuesday the European Commission.