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The job was not enough to convince Wall Street

U.S. stock markets close an uncoordinated, on Wednesday. The Dow Jones gained 0.06% to 12,047.70 and the Nasdaq advance of 0.05% to 2752.65 points, while the S & P 500 lost 0.18% to 1305.28 points. Tuesday for the first time since June 2008, the U.S. index has crossed, close Tuesday, the 12,000 points mark, despite the continued unrest in Egypt.

On the foreign exchange market, the euro retreated against the dollar on Wednesday evening. Around 22:15, the euro bought 1.3806 dollars against 1.3831 dollars late Tuesday.

The better than expected U.S. employment in January

On the macroeconomic front, several indicators were expected in the United States. Job creation in the U.S. private sector were higher than expected in January, according to results of the monthly ADP released Wednesday.In total, 187,000 jobs were created during the first month of the year versus the consensus of 29 analysts polled by Reuters had forecast about 145,000. Moreover, the December figures were revised down to 247,000 against 297,000 originally announced.

Crude oil inventories rose sharply for the third consecutive week in the U.S., according to figures released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Energy. They amounted to 33.2 million barrels to 28 January, an increase of 2.6 million.

Sanofi-Aventis year close to agreement with Genzyme

Genzyme: -0.29% to 73.36 dollars

The side of values, the merger between Sanofi-Aventis and Genzyme has taken another step forward. On Monday, the two sides reached an agreement in principle on the structure of a rapprochement.And Tuesday, a source familiar with the matter said that Sanofi-Aventis would have fallen for that, its offer to just over $ 70 off certificate of conditional value (CCV).

GlaxoSmithKline: -1.18% to 36.95 dollars

In the same area, the British group GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) announced Wednesday it sold $ 1.7 billion, all of its shares in the American medical diagnostic tests and Quest Diagnostics.

Electronic Arts: 15.81% to 18.09 dollars

Always on the side of values, after closing the American publisher of video games Electronic Arts has quadrupled its net loss during the third quarter of fiscal shifted, to 322 million, exceeding expectations, however. Indeed, excluding special items and reported the number of shares, this amounts to 59 cents beyond the 57 cents expected by analysts.The turnover amounted to participate in its $ 1.41 billion, slightly below expectations, and an increase of 4.75%.In addition, the group announced a share buyback of 600 million over 18 months, "a first for many years," says an analyst.

Western Union: 2.37% to 20.77 dollars

For his part, Western Union has reported for the fourth quarter earnings per share of $ 0.38, $ 0.35 cons expected by the market and $ 0.32 last year.

Aflac: -2.44% to 57.10 dollars

Aflac announced for the fourth quarter earnings per share of $ 1.33, $ 1.35 cons expected by the market and $ 1.18 last year.

Broadcom: -5.59% to 43.80 dollars

Also after market, Broadcom has released the fourth quarter 2010 revenues of $ 1.95 billion, in line with expectations against $ 1.34 billion a year earlier. The adjusted earnings per share rose to $ 0.58 against $ 0.32 last year.For the current quarter, the company targets a turnover of between 1.75 and 1.85 billion dollars against 1.46 billion last year.

Ford: -3.08% to 15.40 dollars

The rating agency Standard and Poor's (SP) announced that it raised its rating of U.S. automaker Ford BB-B + cons, together with a positive outlook, citing continuing economic recovery in the United States.

Google: 0.16% to 612 dollars

World number one search engine on the internet Google has accused his rival, the Bing website, copy the results it offers users what the computer group Microsoft has formally denied.

Also note, major banks and brokerages on Wall Street have made their employees pay record under past year, two years after the great crisis that devastated the area, according to the Wall Street Journal .The 25 largest institutions have paid their employees an unprecedented $ 135 billion dollars in salary and variable compensation. This amount is 5.6% higher than that paid for 2009.

JP Morgan Chase lost 1.05% to 45.45 dollars, Goldman Sachs was down 0.17% to 165.05 dollars and Bank of America was down 0.49% to 14.24 dollars and loose Citigroup 1.02% to 4.85 dollars.

Tunisia: "Democracy is good for investment '

The new governor of Bank of Tunisia launched in Davos, a call to the international investor confidence. Echoing one of the slogans of the protesters that led to regime change, "democracy is good for investment," Mustapha Kamel Nabli said that "the payment system works, as banks and foreign payments and there is no pressure on the exchange rate. "

He did acknowledge that some sectors such as tourism he said, are being "disorganized" because of political changes. Nevertheless he believes that the economic situation is "under control. We do not need any outside help. Our foreign exchange reserves are strong. "Deliberately adopting a technical language, this former academic who went through the World Bank, explained that "the fundamentals (economy) is good, the workforce is educated."

Asked about the country's gold reserves, he said a physical inventory has been made by a team of two internal auditors and two external auditors to the Bank. It appeared that the gold reserves held in the coffers of the institution in Tunis s raised to 5.7 tonnes, combined 1 payday loan lenders.4 that was tabled at the Bank of England. Total reserves are consistent with the actual IMF figures (nearly 6.8 tons).Contrary to rumors that the wife of former President Ben Ali would have won 1.5 tons belonging to the Central Bank, the reserves of the latter are intact.

A former executive of Ernst & Young

Mustapha Kamel Nabli identified himself as an academic, who joined the government after Ben Ali in 1990, broke away in 1995 to emigrate. He is accompanied in Davos two new ministers who have just been appointed. On the one hand, Yassine Brahim who support the Ministry of Infrastructures and Transport and other Sami Zaoui. This was until very recently a part of the auditing firm Ernst & Young in Paris, where it was established 23 years.He is now head of the Department of Computer Technologies and Information.

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Facebook could publish its accounts in 2012

The mystery around the Facebook accounts could be lifted by April 2012. Concordant sources, the online social network will soon have more than 500 shareholders and will be forced by law to publish certain financial information or preparing an IPO.

Already, a memo circulated to potential investors and reported by several media reveals first figures on the website activity. Facebook would have made profits of $ 355 million in the first nine months of 2010, for a turnover of 1.2 billion.

The social network in a half-billion subscribers is currently valued at $ 50 billion after the U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs has invested directly this week 450 million, while offering the opportunity for individual investors to take a stake in Facebook worth 1.5 billion dollars.

This operation attracted the attention of régulateurs.Les much speculation about the intentions of the group led by Mark Zuckerberg, including the fact that he may be trying to circumvent a possible IPO, while a listing on procurement constraints associated corporate transparency.

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The state is still struggling to control their expenditure

This is one of the leitmotifs of government: to bring its public deficit to 3% of GDP in 2013 to contain its debt, France must first reduce spending. Because the other option – massive tax increase – would kill growth. And then the level itself of high public spending (it absorbs 56.6% of national wealth) suggests some leeway.

To achieve its objective, the government has set rules, particularly on government spending, a priori more "controllable". Each year, the total expenditure of the State should not grow faster than inflation, while expenses, excluding charges, debt and retirement of civil servants must remain constant in euros. One way to keep the budgets of ministries whatever surprises on the burden of debt.

On paper, the proposed 2011 budget meets the road map.The state spending rose only 1.3% to 1.5% inflation. Excluding fees and expenses of debt and pensions remained stable at 274.8 billion euros. But in detail, the picture is less rosy. Because the state has always so difficult to control certain budgets.

In May, Francois Fillon announced that the operating expenses (expenses associated with the policies carried out mostly in the office) and non-staff operating costs were reduced 10% by 2013 and 5% in 2011. Yet in its report on the Finance Bill, Philippe Marini, the UMP rapporteur of the Budget in the Senate, said that the operating expenses will decrease by 1% next year, to 58.9 billion. At Bercy, it contends that "the effort should not be calculated from the 2010 level but compared to the natural drift of expenditure.In 2011, they will be 5% lower than they would without the measures taken by the government. " In fact, the executive decided real savings: it reduces the number of contracts and helped cut out the exemptions from payroll taxes (including employment at home). But it also has a subterfuge, by reallocating some costs to other agencies. The State "share" and the financing of vocational training with social agencies for 330 million …

Social benefits and wages of civil servants

Especially, the government did nothing to stop the drift of social benefits. Bercy had planned to curb the rise in the allowance for disabled adults and to prevent the accumulation of individual housing allowance (PLA) with a half-share of family quotient.But, faced with protests, these projects were abandoned.

More surprisingly, the state firm grasp its operating costs. Including its payroll, as pointed Gilles Carrez, the UMP rapporteur of the Budget to the Assembly in its report on the Finance Bill. Despite the non-replacement of retiring in two, staff costs excluding pensions will increase from 700 million in 2011 to $ 82.7 billion. The reason: fewer retirements and skidding all bonuses paid to employees. "But by 2012 the payroll decline", says it does at Bercy.

Furthermore, savings are low on operating expenses in the strict sense, despite the streamlining of procurement, information technology and other charges as part of the general revision of public policies. Next year will be lower than 2% (barely 200 million).Admittedly, 2011 was marked by exceptional operating expenses of $ 400 million, principally for the French presidency of the G20. But the State did not offset by additional cuts. Even if there's progress in ministries and parastatals if (Météo France, museums, etc..) Are better controlled, the state is still far less strict than a business.

G20: assessment of the reforms, after two years of work

1. MACRO ECONOMIC COORDINATION: To be continued …

The G20 has agreed to make concerted fiscal stimulus to London to avoid depression. It was a success. In Toronto, the G20 has endorsed the post-crisis differentiated, giving the green light to the rigor in Europe, without preventing the widening deficits in the United States. But macroeconomic coordination tightly decided in Pittsburgh, with a communication to the G20 economic policies proposed by different countries, and monitoring of targets by the IMF, has remained a dead letter. The United States hopes to rehabilitate, Seoul, through close monitoring of current account imbalances.

2. REFORM OF IMF AND WORLD BANK: Acquired

Emerging markets have gained representation in the IMF and World Bank.The IMF Board approved on November 5 the doubling of the voting rights of China (2.9% to 6.1% of total) and increased voice of India and Brazil inexpensive business card. The United States, France and Britain have agreed to reduce their quota shares. The reform will take effect in late 2012. The IMF will also double its resources to reach 534 billion euros, a decision taken in London G20. Reforming the World Bank endorsed the G20 Toronto, will see emerging and developing win votes 3.13% to 47%. The boss of the Bank, Robert Zoellick, called for 50%.

3.BANKING REGULATION: Basel IIII will be endorsed in Seoul

Ten years to draft prudential standards called Basel II, two years to give birth to Basel III: Angela Merkel does not fail to recall the enormous work done by regulators to increase the quality and quantity of bank capital – 2% to 7% – while creating a liquidity ratio and debt. Two questions remain daunting. First, if Europe has promised to implement these rules, the question remains as regards the United States. Then the debate is raging over whether or not to require from the systemic institutions even more capital. A topic for Seoul and 2011.

4. BONUS HEDGE FUNDS: Better boxes

Bankers overpaid. It was one of the priorities of the G20 in London. On this point, Europe has made great progress.Too even consider European banks who feel disadvantaged relative to their American or Asian. The bonus cap was passed by the European Parliament and the Committee of European Banking Supervisors board for accelerated reform on 1 January 2011. A tax on the bonus was introduced in Paris, London and Frankfurt. The United States themselves are content to "frame" bonuses without taxation. They chose to monitor the activities of hedge funds by limiting the amounts that banks can invest, while Europe has decided to submit them to leave best business card .

5. TAX HAVEN: monitored

The G20 in London marked the departure of the great crusade against tax havens, led by Paris, Berlin and Washington, which in turn sway the strongholds of bank secrecy.Switzerland, Austria, Monaco, Liechtenstein … decided to comply with the OECD standard on exchange of tax information. Result, a year and a half later, the list of uncooperative jurisdictions OECD now has only ten small countries. More than 600 bilateral agreements were signed and the French-Swiss tax treaty enters into force in January. States have also initiated through the Global Forum on transparency of the OECD, a process of peer review of progress, which must be completed by end 2011.

Marseille oil terminals released

Unravels the conflict in the oil sector. So begins the weekend of All Saints, with special emphasis on roads, twelve French refineries were released on Friday, one after the other. Employees of sites Gonfreville, Dunkirk, Lavera, Feyzin, Donges and Grandpuits successively voted today to end the strike, as well as oil terminals in Le Havre and Fos-Lavera.

"All the refineries in the region have returned to work, so it made no sense to continue" warranted a syndicalist CGT Gonfreville. A Donges refinery voted last Friday afternoon, ending the conflict, the CFDT delegate Guiller Dimitri, for his part stressed the "pride" felt by employees who have risen since October 12 against the pension reform. "It's a pride that the government does not take away," he advised.A conflict that has been hovering for several days the threat of fuel shortages and cost a hundred million euros in the Total group.

The oil will again be routed

In particular, the upturn in oil terminal at Fos-Lavera in the Bouches-du-Rhone, which occurred last this afternoon, was crucial for the proper supply service stations. Despite the gradual resumption of work in the refineries in recent days, six were still unable Friday to resume normal production because crude oil transported via oil terminals. Their work will now be able to resume.

Supply side, if the Energy Minister Jean-Louis Borloo announced Thursday the opening of 85% of service stations, even though the situation remained tense in the West, Midwest and the Ile-de- France.Condition of anonymity, a large fuel distributor also said to AFP that the number of service stations in difficulties was more like "a station on three." Thursday night, returning to normal, repeatedly promised, was rather planned for early next week.

»View the map Carbeo service stations out:

The CAC 40 closed down sharply

The Paris Stock Exchange fell frankly Wednesday after hesitating between the rather negative reaction to the message of the Fed (Monetary Committee of the communique was released Tuesday evening) and, positive Asian markets early this morning. At the close, the CAC 40 dropped 1.30% to 3735.05 points. The London Stock Exchange ended down 0.44% at 5551.91 points.

The London Stock Exchange closed lower Wednesday, the FTSE-100 index lost 24.28 key values points, or 0.44% from Tuesday's close at 5551.91 points. The Dax index featuring the Frankfurt Stock Exchange loose 1.08% to 6208.33 points, weighed down by Deutsche Bank which lost 8.35% to 41.02 euros.

Nevertheless, the reactions are strong on the foreign exchange market. The dollar fell when the news release.Thus, the euro has benefited from these bouts of weakness: the European currency ratings on Wednesday afternoon at more than $ 1.33, the highest in five months. One that is a very strong resistance, in terms of technical analysis.

Gold hit a new record Wednesday, and document this morning at just under 1290 dollars an ounce.

The French industry is recovering

The industrial orders in the euro area fell more sharply than expected in July due to lower demand for capital goods and consumer durables. According to figures published by Eurostat on Wednesday, orders for the 16 euro zone countries fell 2.4% in July compared to June, giving an increase of 11.2% over one year. In France, the French industry is doing better but has not yet managed to regain the level of activity before the crisis. And the situation remains fragile.The rebound of the industry has been boosted by exports but has slowed since a month or two. And rising raw material costs could undermine the corporate treasury.

Earlier this afternoon, will be published the minutes of the last meeting of the Bank of England. Then at 16:30, the traditional weekly inventory of crude oil in the U.S. fall.

France Telecom ups its pawns in Morocco

France Telecom (-1.25% to 16.4 euros) has signed an agreement with Caisse de Depot et de Gestion (CDG) and FinanceCom to repurchase 40% of Medi Telecom (Meditel), the second telecom operator Morocco, for 640 million euros. The telecoms operator has submitted a package of measures to improve working conditions for employees and offer them a new "social contract" after the wave of suicide that rocked the company.

Societe Generale (-0.84% to 44.64 euros). Lehman Brothers Holdings has approached earlier this week the bankruptcy court in New York to end a dispute that pitted the General Corporation for eighteen months. If the mutual agreement between both parties is approved by the judge, Societe Generale will pay $ 445 million.

Note that the Credit du Nord, a 100% subsidiary of Societe Generale, announced Wednesday it had completed its acquisition of Société Marseillaise de Credit (SMC) with the group BPCE (People's Bank – Savings Bank) for 872 million EUR payday loan lenders.

A follow Natixis (+0.23% to 4.36 euros), which has chained two sessions in a row as bottom side of the CAC 40, while the bank has integrated the benchmark index of the Paris stock exchange Monday morning.

Sanofi exposed to losses of activity record

Sanofi-Aventis (-1.38% to 50 euros) has announced the failure of a Phase III (the last before the application for approval) of a treatment of critical ischemia of lower limbs, a condition often leading to gangrene and amputation.

Goldman Sachs announced Wednesday that the European pharmaceutical sector is fast approaching its highest losses of revenue from the sale of new generic drugs. According to the U.S. through the groups most at risk are the French Sanofi-Aventis, Novartis, and AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline UK.

As for dealers, Barclays announced Wednesday it had raised its board of Carrefour (-1.78% to 39.8 euros), from underweight to overweight.Meanwhile, Swiss bank UBS, which is neutral on the value, from 37 to 40 euros in terms of price target. Barclays said to remain generally positive on the sector of food retailing in Europe.

Side EADS (-2.53% to 19.1 euros, p lus sharp decline of ACC 40), its direct competitor Boeing is close to signing a contract with India in the defense sector of $ 3.5 billion , which would make it the largest bilateral agreement in this area Wednesday wrote the daily The Economic Times.

Louis Dreyfus Stock Exchange?

Outside the CAC 40, Air France-KLM (-1.53% to 11.56 euros) has announced the creation of a joint venture with China Southern on revenue sharing on the Paris-Canton and will enter into force on the first November 2010.

Belvedere (-3.87% to 22.1 euros). The Court of Appeal of Dijon confirmed the decision of 15 December 2009 of the Commercial Court.He had then recognized the full 375 million debt he owed to bondholders. "So the backup plan approved in November 2009, which already provided for the repayment of this debt in ten years remains unchanged," said Belvedere, who will lodge an appeal.

According to reports in Le Figaro, the giant Louis Dreyfus Trading examines several scenarios, including the IPO of LD Commodities.

Spir Communication (18.19% to 24 euros) on Wednesday announced a reorganization of its joint participation with the Norwegian Schibsted, which it will resume its shares in the Lacentrale.fr site in exchange for his own participation in the site leboncoin.fr .

Trading in Team Partners suspended Wednesday pre-market at the request of the company, pending a statement, NYSE Euronext announced.The title company business service ended at 60 cents on Tuesday. Ditto for the land Acanthe.

No publishing company is expected at the Paris Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

In Tokyo, Fillon praised the "rigor" French

From our special correspondent in Tokyo

François Fillon has dropped the word naturally. He who rejects the word rigor in Paris, finally telling the truth in Tokyo. "Of all the state budgets, the only one who is not subject to discipline is that of Higher Education and Research, argues the prime minister, at the turn of a sentence imposed before an audience of five hundred Japanese businessmen and under the approving glance of Christine Lagarde.

True to his outspokenness, the Minister of Economy has not taken greater care to reassure the business community Nippon concerned about turmoil in Europe since the sinking of the Greek economy. "There is not in France, I can assure you of hidden deficits. We have a package of structural deficits, but our accounts are audited very seriously, "warned the owner of Bercy.What has been told to François Fillon not without humor: "Unfortunately, there is no hidden revenue either!"

The European austerity plans discussed at length

He came to Japan to reassure businessmen and Japanese bankers, Francois Fillon has long defended the austerity plans implemented in the euro area. The European currency crisis causes, in fact, Japan concern and uncertainty about the strength of the European Union. The major daily newspaper Nikkei has made his One, two days ago, the 30% decline in investment in the euro countries during the first half of 2010 faxless cash advance.

"I understand that, seen from Asia, our operations can sometimes be difficult to perceive and understand.But Japan's national interest is not to turn away from the euro, "Francois Fillon urged by recalling that Europe is" the great market of the developed world with 500 million consumers. Incidentally, he ditch tackle the Anglo-Saxon does not deliver, he says, a "balanced view of the success of the European Union" and invited his audience to read the German press and French.

Before leaving Tokyo, Francois Fillon met with his counterpart Naoto Kan. In addition to macroeconomic issues, the two men discussed several issues of the Franco-Japanese: nuclear, automotive and aerospace.Weakened by his recent defeat in the senatorial elections, the center-left prime minister of Japan can not implement as it sees the budget and tax reforms that could reduce Japan's debt, too colossal.

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KKR moves from NYSE Euronext

Three years after its rival, Blackstone, and especially after three years of unsuccessful attempts, KKR was thus introduced for the first time at the New York Stock Exchange Thursday. Initially, the U.S. investment fund and private equity had planned to enter the market on Wall Street one month after Blackstone, but the crisis had decided otherwise. KKR, which was delisted from Euronext Amsterdam on Wednesday, offers no new action at this time, but plans to issue 500 million shares, according to market developments.

Valued at $ 7.1 billion in stock, as the closing price on Wednesday (up 2.9%), against 26 billion in the summer of 2006, KKR could see its market capitalization rise to $ 9.2 billion , according to analysts at Rabobank.They believe that after Blackstone's IPO in New York a second heavyweight private equity could galvanize investor interest and emulation.

Redeploy the firm

After the resignation of Jerome Kohlberg (the second "K" "KKR") in 1987, shares Henry Kravis (the first "K" "KKR") and his cousin George Roberts (the "R" of "KKR ") amounted to 13% for each of the company, which manages 55 billion in assets and employs 600 people. All employees of KKR a stake in the capital.

The two founders of U.S. private equity group hoping through the IPO to ensure that KKR will become less sensitive to cycles of uncertain LBO (leveraged buyout or takeover of a company through debt). This is why they are working on a redeployment of the firm towards the profession of investment banking.The question is whether investors will be convinced.

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Lagarde freeze gas prices

The Regulatory Commission (CRE) had just agreed to the request of GDF Suez to raise gas prices as of July 1. They grow by 4.7%, bringing the increase to nearly 15% since the beginning of the year. Although this further increase was expected, the household energy bill begins to weigh.

However, Christine Lagarde, Minister of Economy, warned Friday that gas prices will not move until 1 January. Consumers will escape upwards so that additional sketched already by 1 October – the price revision is now making quarterly.

The "pause" as required by the Minister is made on behalf of a review of the formula currently allows GDF Suez to calculate its rates. In spring, the regulator had already begun an audit. It will therefore continue, before the drawing, probably new method of calculation.Knowing that GDF Suez is currently conducting a number of renegotiations with producer countries. "I hope that the CRE do an audit of this formula because I'm quite surprised at the speed of execution and I wish that as a result of this audit, we determine if the formula is good," said Christine Lagarde Friday on France Inter.

"The current tariff is not obsolete, but it can be optimized," says one expert dossier.In discussion, the long-term contracts underlying the supply of GDF Suez (with key suppliers such as Russia, Algeria and Norway), while the spot price of gas fall very weakly into account in calculating the formula.

The government takes the hand

"On a more general issue is whether to continue to index the price of oil on gas prices, even though overproduction of gas worldwide has resulted in a fall prices, "says one expert. However, increased consideration of market prices in the establishment of the formula may increase the volatility of rates. In all cases, the balance is difficult to find.

For the government, the record price of gas remains thorny.Early this year he thought he had found a solution by entrusting exclusively to the regulator, on the proposal of GDF SUEZ, the task of settling. But after two significant increases in quick succession, the government, well aware of the unpopular side of the increases among the public, are now forced to return to the game