National, World, Business News

Vinci said Thursday that its subsidiary had won five contracts Eurovia maintenance of road infrastructure in the UK for a cumulative value exceeding 1.7 billion euros.

The contracts, whose initial terms ranging between five and ten years, covering all aspects of road maintenance, such as routine maintenance, inspection and repair works of Art, emergency response, snow removal and street lighting, Vinci said in a statement.

Two of these contracts were won through a joint venture with the American consulting firm Jacobs.

Areva's strategic plan will not result in job cuts in France, said Tuesday the Minister of Economy, following a meeting with the CEO of French nuclear group.

The government so far ruled out job cuts, leaving the possibility of voluntary redundancies or job cuts by not replacing departures.

The president of Areva, Luc Oursel said at the meeting that the plan would result "no job cuts, no voluntary separation plan, no impact on the French sites," said Baroin reporters.

European households reduced by 0.8% think expenditures for gifts, holiday meals and outputs, according to a study released Tuesday. In France, spending will increase from 1.9% to 606 euros per household. French households plan to increase spending Christmas from 1.9% to 606 euros per household in 2011

Consumers in countries most affected by the debt crisis, such as Greece, are cut in their budget for Christmas, but the French and other Europeans should forget the rigor and loosen the belt a bit this holiday season, according to a study published Tuesday. Christmas 2011 appears as "the last opportunity to have fun, but without folly, before 2012 is awaited with concern," according to the Deloitte study, conducted among 18,354 consumers in 17 countries in September."The French may have gone too far" in some trade-offs since 2008 and "they relax a little," said Antoine de Riedmatten, a partner at Deloitte, saying they want to "have fun", but "with caution ". For 45% of them think that their purchasing power will deteriorate next year, against 36% last year.

Money and books at the top of desired gifts

The French buy more food and great brands for these feasts, having directed forward towards private labels. Similarly, they offer gifts to a few more people and make a little less gifts grouped, he says. If the criteria price and value guide further choices, well-being will also be preferred, as reflected in the intentions of gifts, third place in spa services, care or massage behind the chocolates and perfumes and cosmetics.

Exxon Mobil reported Thursday a 41% jump in earnings in the third quarter, slightly more than expected by Wall Street, thanks to higher oil prices and improved refining margins.

Several major oil companies like Royal Dutch Shell and Norway's Statoil, have reported in recent days of strong quarterly results due to higher oil prices.

The futures contract on crude oil traded in New York has averaged $ 90 per barrel in the quarter, up 18% over the same period in 2010, while Brent crude oil jumped 48% .

An hour after the opening of Wall Street, Exxon earned the title 0.2% to 81.17 dollars, underperforming the S & P of the energy gained 2.34%.

Exxon is investing heavily in the exploitation of shale gas, particularly in North America.

The benefit of exploration activity and production of Exxon jumped 54%, the refining of 36%. The group said that better refining margins helped boost the profit of one billion dollars.

After the improvement of labor market frameworks in 2011, the coming months are more uncertain, according to APEC. Companies are less likely to plan to recruit executives in the fourth quarter. The barometer of APEC are signs of loss of business confidence.

2011 promises to be a good year for executives with a job market that has "resilient" but uncertainties in 2012, with gloomy economic outlook, according to the quarterly barometer of the Association for the use of frameworks (APEC) on Wednesday. "The year 2011 will be a very good year. It is the certainty, it is behind us, as business investment have been supported," said the executive director of APEC Jacky Chatelain, at a conference the press.

"But at the end of this year there are also elements of uncertainty," he said.Thus, if a significant number of companies plan to hire at least a part in the 4th quarter, a smaller proportion than in the third quarter are in fact some of it. 53% of companies with more than 100 employees plan to recruit at least one frame between October and December, an increase of 4 percentage points year on year. But only 69% of these are certain to do so – against 75% last quarter.

In the third quarter, employment remained strong: 57% of companies with more than one hundred employees, or 3 points from the third quarter of 2010, recruited at least one frame. The job assigned to the Apec also increased by 59% over one year in the third quarter. Nearly 140,000 bids were entrusted to the association. "The engine of growth" was the area of ​​the Council and business services: 100% in the third quarter of 2011, against 73% over the same period of 2010).But since then, signs of loss of business confidence have emerged: in September 21% of companies felt that the economic situation had deteriorated over the past year, against 16% in June

Graduates most affected by this pessimism

This loss of confidence seems to work against graduates, for whom the "hiring intentions are down for the first time in two years," said Pierre Lamblin Director of Education and Research APEC.

In a context "uncertain", companies are looking more frames already trained more operational: 41% of companies planning to hire in Q4 target young graduates, a decline of six points in one year, according to the survey, result of telephone inquiries conducted by the company in September Gn operations, with a panel of 750 firms with over 100 employees, representing the private sector."This is not not a disaster," the proportion was only 22% in late 2008, said Mr. Lamblin. "But the question is: will it last and how long?".

While according to the INSEE, the overall unemployment rate in France could reach 9.2% of the workforce in the fourth quarter, the executive is now much lower, around 3.7 or 3.8%. But the conditions of re-employment of executives have deteriorated from the end of 2008 and the long-term unemployment has increased frames. Today, a third of managers are unemployed for more than 12 months.

Confidence will be key to reviving growth in the U.S. economy and soothe the anger that swells around the global financial system, determined by the Director General of General Electric, who said he understood the movement of "outrage" of Wall Street.

Jeff Immelt, who heads the world's leading manufacturer of aircraft engines and electric turbines is also senior adviser to President Obama for employment and the economy.

"Until we have restored confidence, we can not move forward," he said at a conference organized by Thomson Reuters in New York.

He called for exercise of "empathy" with respect to the crowds of protesters occupying Wall Street and parade through the United States last month to denounce the excesses of the financial system, inequality and the economic crisis.

"Unemployment reached 9.1%. Underemployment is even higher, especially among young people without a university degree," he listed. "It is natural to assume that people are angry."

"The only way to solve this particular problem is growth," he said. "If unemployment is falling, people will feel better.If unemployment rises, people will feel even worse, what happens on Wall Street, no matter what the reform of finance. "

Jeff Immelt also commented on the debt crisis in the euro area, which worries financial markets worldwide and has already pushed major banks like Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase to announce layoffs.

"The most likely scenario is that Europe has a low growth for a long time," he said.

European shares opened sharply lower Tuesday, financial and cyclical stocks in the lead, continuing a decline the last two sessions in markets still dominated by fear of failure Greek and a return to recession.

Following a meeting of finance minister in the euro area, the President of the Eurogroup Jean-Claude Juncker said that the private sector into the background of aid to Greece should be reviewed to reflect of the degradation of the economy and European markets.

At 9:38, the CAC 40 was down 2.51% to 2853.30 points and a loss of over 6% since last Thursday.

"It is clear that these concerns about Europe are not going away anytime soon, as long as markets remain dominated by this fear, the downward pressure should continue to prevail. The meetings of European finance ministers who stand in Luxembourg have already lead to a series of statements that move the markets – again primarily to the decline, "said IG Markets.

Other major European markets, London yields 1.95%, 2.57% Frankfurt and Milan 2%.The pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 index lost 2.5%.

The banking sector is still one of the largest declines, dragged down by Dexia, which collapsed after holding an emergency board on back of speculation of dismantling the group.

In this context of anxiety and risk aversion, the performance of the German government bond (Bund) is relaxed to 10 years again, to 1.72%, 1.81% against the previous day.

The euro continued to decline and is trading at 1.3174 / 78 dollars, against 1.3181 the day before the end of the session.

Similarly, a barrel of U.S. light crude lost another $ 1.31 to 76.30 dollars amid concerns about global growth.

The action EADS is among the largest declines in the CAC 40 index on Thursday morning at the Paris Stock Exchange, while concerns are emerging about a domino effect on aircraft manufacturers difficulties refinancing of French banks in dollars.

In a market that was down 3.93%, weighed down by the performance of particular financial and cyclical stocks, the parent company of Airbus shows a fall of 6.81% to 21.14 euros at 10:45.

"It lowers the title.This is the first strong example of the effects of the crisis of dollar liquidity for European banks on the real economy, "said David Thebault, head of quantitative trading at Global Equities.

"We must certainly take this into account (the difficulties of banks) in financing equipment for all aircraft manufacturers," judge his side an analyst based in London, in a note.

This risk is relative, however, under the control of German banks to lend and potentially U.S. institutions, said the analyst, who also refers to possible emergency measures on the part of the French state.

"There are ways to deal with it immediately: some will take the place of French banks – U.S. banks and Chinese – and there are other ways to finance an aircraft, especially to leasers (lessors ) and 'vendor financing' EADS ', also adds Christophe Menard, an analyst at Kepler.

These fears of financial difficulties echo the statements of some leaders of the aviation sector in the Istat, a conference on the financing of aircraft, held in Barcelona on Tuesday.

French banks, which accounted for about 31% in aircraft financing transactions in 2010, reduced their availability significantly, said on this occasion the chief financial officer of Ryanair, Howard Millar.

The five major central banks around the world, including the ECB, announced September 15 a coordinated commercial banks to offer loans in dollars in three months to prevent freezing of the money market which would be caused by the debt crisis sovereign in Europe.

European banks, particularly French, have seen their share price fall since the beginning of the summer on fears related to potential recapitalization needs and issues of liquidity in dollars, American money market funds and other traditional lenders Greek dollar fearing failure and potential devastating effects on the markets.

In this context, speculation saying that the French government could be forced to intervene to stop the bleeding is growing, especially as fears of a credit freeze remake regular surface due to the persistence of debt crisis in the euro area.

Politicians and bosses of banks took turns for several weeks to deny any need for new capital, but struggle to convince.

BNP Paribas, which has undertaken to strengthen its equity more quickly, said last week it would reduce the size of its balance sheet of about 10% by the end of 2012 and it would also reduce its needs funding dollar.

Societe Generale for its part intends to strengthen its capital of four billion euros by 2013, including asset sales and reducing their activity.

Greece hopes to conclude an agreement Tuesday with its international donors, so you can receive a new tranche of eight billion euros scheduled for October, told Reuters on Monday a senior Greek finance.

"The climate was better than expected," the official said, referring to a conference held on Monday between the Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos and the "troika" (EU, IMF, European Central Bank).

The Ministry of Finance said earlier that this discussion had been "productive and substantial" and that it be repeated Tuesday night.

"We are close to an agreement and we hope to conclude tomorrow.The government will make an announcement likely on Wednesday after the cabinet meeting.We will continue the discussion tomorrow, "the official added.

Without this new tranche of aid, tied to the forefront of international bailout which Greece received last year, the Greek government said it would find itself short of resources in mid-October.

To avoid this, Greece has to reduce its public sector and improve its system of tax collection, consider its international donors.

"The ball is in the Greek camp, the key lies in the implementation of reforms," ​​said Bob Traa, the IMF representative in Greece, at a conference.

These reforms are required to Athens to collect a new tranche of eight billion euros in the first part of its bailout.

According to him, Greece has cut jobs in the public, reduce the salaries and pensions of civil servants and improve its system of tax collection rather than creating new taxes.

Bob Traa was concerned about the lack of public support for the IMF austerity program / EU, while saying that other countries in the euro zone were on the side of Athens, provided that the government showed that he was acting to control its deficits.

FIVE MEASURES

The euro, but Wall Street had cut their losses after an initial source of the Greek Ministry of Finance had said that an agreement was near on aid between Athens and the troika.

Earlier in the day, the euro was down sharply and European shares closed down for fear of a significant failure of Greece.

Greek media have published a list of 15 austerity measures that they believe the troika requires the implementation.They include a new deletion of 20,000 civil service posts, a reduction or a freeze on salaries and pensions of the public service, increasing the tax on heating oil, the closure of public deficit, reducing spending on health and accelerating privatization.

The EC stated that it did not ask to Athens to adopt austerity measures in addition to what has already been agreed in the reform program of government."What is on the table is in full compliance with the agreed objectives," said the spokesperson of the EC Amadeu Altafaj.

Asked whether Greece would receive the next tranche of aid, Venizelos responded to Reuters: "Yes, of course."

Even so, many economists and investors believe that Greece will end up in default on a debt that reached more than 150% of GDP, perhaps a few months.

Venizelos insisted on Sunday that the spending cuts would be the priority of the 2012 budget. He predicted a contraction of GDP higher than expected 5.5% this year.

Italy has had to make a record performance to place five-year bonds Tuesday, which illustrates again the difficulties faced by Rome to finance to sustainable levels.

The euro briefly fell below $ 1.36 and European stock markets have widened their losses after this operation, before these assets back into positive territory in mid-session.

The hope that China will come to the aid of Italy by investing in debt, a prospect that had supported the market on Monday night and Tuesday morning, gradually dissipated, which weighed on the bond issue.

In all, the Italian Treasury has raised 6.485 billion euros, 3.865 billion of new securities to five years, sold at a yield unprecedented 5.60%.

The coverage ratio of the award to five years rose to 1.279, well below that in the last similar operation, where he had established at 1.93.

The cost of financing which faces Italy took off despite the buybacks of sovereign debt in recent weeks made by the European Central Bank (ECB) to support Italy – a program that has led to the resignation sensational Jürgen Stark Friday.

"A disappointing auction, where the relatively low coverage rate is obtained at an exorbitant cost," said Richard McGuire, technical analyst at Rabobank.

The Italian Minister of Economy, Giulio Tremonti, met last week a Chinese delegation, said on Tuesday a spokesman for the Italian Treasury, which did not however want to comment on the content of the meeting.

These offers came a day after an article published in the Financial Times reported that Italy had asked China to support its debt by buying quantities "significant".

EMERGENCY ACTION

Chinese leaders have repeatedly publicly expressed their support for a Euro mired in difficulties.

But according to the Wall Street Journal citing a source familiar with the matter, it is not certain that the talks between China and Italy lead, pointing out that visits of Chinese delegations in Greece and other countries in the region Euro difficulties had raised hopes for investment from the second world economy that never materialized.

The renewed investor concerns about the difficulties Italy has led to a further widening of the yield spread between Italian and German bonds to 394 basis points.

This level is near the peak of 400 basis points reached in August, just before the European Central Bank does not fly to the rescue of Italy in redemption of government bonds issued by Rome.

On Monday, the CDS to five years in Italy has reached a new high of 505 basis points, up 38 basis points, according to Markit, which tracks the derivatives market.This means it costs EUR 505.0000 to guard against exposure to 10 million Italian sovereign bonds.

Italy has entered the center stage of the debt crisis because of its sluggish growth and its debt of 1,900 billion euros, representing about 120% of the GDP of the country.

Italian MPs are looking into the austerity plan introduced by the government of Silvio Berlusconi plans to reduce the budget to balance of Italy in 2013.

The Italian Senate approved on Wednesday through a vote of confidence in the austerity plan intended to bring 54 billion euros according to the Italian Treasury.

Italian MPs will be asked to vote on Wednesday by a vote on the austerity plan of the Italian government said on Tuesday the prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.

Herman Van Rompuy, European Council President, said that the implementation of the austerity program was crucial not only for Italy but for the euro area as a whole.

According to economists, the cost of a bailout of the country at once would exhaust all resources in the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF).