The week starts well for the Asian market. On Monday, all financial markets appear to increase sustained. At the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Nikkei opened up 1.53% and growth is accelerated in mid-session (1.80%) before finishing on a gain of 2.09% to 10,567.25 points. This is its highest level in six weeks.
The morale of Japanese investors is supported by sound macroeconomic statistics, published Monday. Japan has indeed registered in January of a current account surplus of 899.8 billion yen (6.9 billion euros), after having suffered a record deficit de132, 7 billion yen last year, according to the Ministry of Finance . This figure is higher than the forecasts of economists who were expecting on average a surplus of 750 billion yen.
In addition, Asian markets continue to react positively to the figures of U.S. employment, less bad than expected on Friday.The United States lost 36,000 jobs in February. The consensus of analysts foresaw from 50,000 to 67,000 job cuts. The unemployment rate remained steady at 9.7%, consistent with him, anticipated savings account payday advance . The announcement Friday, coupled with an increase in consumer credit (4.96 billion dollars in January, the first increase in a year), led by Wall Street and European financial centers, close to the green.
Exchanges in the region follow suit
In the wake of Tokyo, the benchmark Hang Seng Stock Exchange of Hong Kong climbed 1.92% to 21,186.09 points. The Shanghai Stock Exchange is 0.74% at 3053.60 points.
The other exchanges in the region follow. Korea's KOSDAQ is up 0.73% to 1267.63 points. The Bombay Stock Exchange posted an increase of 0.92% to 17,150.53 points.The S & P 200 Australian climbing 0.85% to 4807.90 points.
The increased gross
As for commodities, crude prices were trending upward in Asia on Monday. The barrel of light sweet crude for April delivery gained 47 cents to 81.97 dollars, reaching the highest at 82.04 dollars before retreating.
The barrel of Brent North Sea at the same maturity, took 47 cents to 80.36 dollars.
Economic conditions continued to improve in the United States in January-February, "although harsh snowstorms in early February have dampened activity in several regions," according to the Beige Book released Wednesday by the U.S. central bank (Fed).
The document states that the activity has increased in nine of the twelve regions (by cutting the Fed), but that "in most cases, these improvements were small.
The information provided by the Beige Book are very important because they serve as a reference to the meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Fed scheduled for March 16, which will decide on changes in interest rates.
Regarding the labor market, for which the Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, gave recently bleak outlook before Congress, the document notes that "the pace of layoffs has slowed in most regions, but that hiring plans of companies remain "soft in general."
As for expenditure on household consumption, traditional engine of growth of the country which is struggling to regain its role, they "grew slightly in many areas, but have been hampered in some by the snowfalls of early check cash advance .
Japanese carmaker Toyota, which is considering the recall of hundreds of thousands of Prius cars due to brake problems, may also recall the models and hybrid Lexus HS250h Sai said Monday the Nikkei daily.According to the newspaper, which cited no sources, this measure would cover some 28,000 cars in Japan and abroad (8000 Sai and 20,000 Lexus), with the same braking technologies that Prius.
The Japanese beverage maker Kirin Holdings will continue to seek strategic partners to become a global leading insisted Monday the director general of the group after the breakdown of merger talks with fellow Suntory.
Toyota has done it again, but this time no further announcement has come offset concerns about her Prius. Not even net earnings for the third quarter … Toyota announced just before closing. In Tokyo, the Nikkei closed at a decline of 0.46%. The Nikkei lost 48.35 points to 10,355.98 and the broader TOPIX, yielded 4.59 points (-0.5%) to 911.09 points.
Crude oil prices continued their decline Thursday in electronic trading in Asia, amid declining grants and rising oil stocks in the United States, according to analysts. In morning trading, a barrel of light sweet crude for March delivery retreated 17 cents to 76.81 dollars, while that of Brent North Sea at the same maturity, lost 30 cents to 75.62 dollars .The crude inventories rose in the U.S. for the third straight week, by 2.3 million barrels – indicating a falling demand – while the market expected them to remain unchanged payday loan lenders .
As Toyota (-3.53%) and its subsidiaries are also affected by the distrust: the supplier Denso has dropped 6.26% and assembler Toyota Auto Body 1.08%. The automaker announced it would recall over 180,000 vehicles in Great Britain to redress the problem of accelerator that has been forced to go along with millions of cars worldwide, Thursday reported several British newspapers , mentioning the mark.Immediately after closing, Toyota has nonetheless announced a net profit of 153 billion yen (1.16 billion) against a loss of 164.7 billion yen (1.25 billion euros) per annum passed over the same period the group has raised its forecast Better Canada under its fiscal year.
Vivendi was convicted Friday of having provided misleading information to shareholders as part of the class action initiated in 2002 in the United States. Upon initiation of the Paris stock market on Monday, the action the French media group has shown in red lantern: Vivendi lends more than 3.6% at midday, to 18.1 euros. Since the start of the trial, which opened October 5, 2009, the stock has skidded 15%.
Vivendi has said it would immediately seek the annulment of the verdict, considering many have grounds for appeal, including the admission of French shareholders in the process and "the wrong method of calculation of damages by the plaintiffs .
Precisely, the question of damages is central.Natixis Securities (review "step up" with a target price of 20.5 euros) says it is for now "impossible to know the benefits that will ultimately claimed. But we know the upper limit, namely 6.6 billion euros, according to plaintiffs' lawyers.
Uncertainty about the amount of compensation
The broker table for the moment on the assumption that 50% of claimants will be compensated – or they do not require as happens in 25 to 30% of cases for class-actions in the United States or that they are not eligible – the amount of damages would range around 3.3 billion euros creditreport .
CM-CIC, which is to "hold" while reducing its theoretical value from 21 to 20 euros, the risk is estimated at 2 billion euros.The broker said to have maintained a 20% discount in its estimates, "given the uncertainties posed by this litigation."
Uncertainties that will influence, and that will last. Vivendi said the prospective payment amounts would be "uncertain for an extended period yet undetermined.
According to CM-CIC, the final verdict on appeal, will not occur until 2011-2012. Vivendi should not provisioned hedge risk in its 2009 accounts.
Nevertheless, this verdict is limiting financial flexibility, Vivendi, at a time when external growth is central to its strategy.
This is without state support that Ford has managed to overcome its difficulties. The U.S. manufacturer announced Thursday it had made a net profit of 2.699 billion dollars over the full year 2009. A performance to be compared with the heavy loss of 14.766 billion harvested in 2008. Over the year, turnover was down to 138.1 against 118.3 billion in 2008.
The group included supporting a very successful fourth quarter. Over this period, the second largest U.S. behind General Motors reports net earnings of $ 868 million against a loss of about 5.978 billion dollars a year earlier. The per share earnings is 25 cents, hardly less than the 26 cents analysts who had forecast. Over this period, revenues totaled $ 35.4 billion against 29 billion a year earlier, an increase of 22%.
Before the opening of Wall Street, the title jumped 2.68% to 11.86 dollars.
$ 500 million quarterly savings
To obtain this result, Ford has relied on reducing structural costs of automotive operations payday advance . A total of 500 million dollars were saved in the fourth quarter. The group did not hesitate to pursue a higher price for its vehicles. His arm Ford Motor Credit has contributed to higher profits in this period with a profit before tax of $ 696 million against a loss of 372 million in 2008.
Ford is the only manufacturer of the "Big Three" of Detroit (with General Motors and Chrysler) have not gone bankrupt. It is reassuring for the future and plans to write "a profit before tax and excluding exceptional items for 2010, without specifying numbers.In addition to profitability, the group is including a U.S. car market between 11.5 and 12.5 of vehicles this year. In the year 2009 in the United States, sales at Ford fell 15.4% to 1.68 million units. Note that, after hesitating a large part of the morning, the Paris Bourse is moving more strongly in the green then qu'affluent results of U.S. companies show no surprises.
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Contracts on U.S. stock indices suggest opening up Wall Street after three sessions of consecutive decline markets suffered the effect of uncertainty on profits in the banking sector related to Barack Obama's desire to limit risk taking . On Monday, the future of Dow Jones rose 0.63% to 10,214 points, future increases in the Standard & Poor's and Nasdaq are more timid: 0.08% for each.
The markets are relieved by the prospect of an upcoming confirmation by the U.S. Senate, the appointment of Ben Bernanke for a second term as president of the Federal Reserve.
On the macroeconomic front, if the meeting Monday is looking pretty quiet with only a statistical program, home sales in December – are expected to decline by 10% after rising 7.4% in November — week, it will be more responsible.In addition to meeting the Monetary Policy Council of the Fed, which must render its decision on rates Wednesday, investors will pay attention to economic data front, starting with the first estimate of U.S. GDP for the fourth quarter 2009, expected on Friday. A follow clues consumer confidence (Conference Board that Tuesday and the University of Michigan Friday) and sales of new homes in December, Wednesday.
As for currencies, the dollar lost ground against the euro, thus yielding 0.4% to 1.419 dollar against the euro, but gained 0.4% against the yen to 90.2 yen Business Card Holders