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The Swedish truck manufacturer Volvo was reported Friday in a lower than expected earnings for the fourth quarter of 2011 and again expect a lackluster fiscal 2012, penalized by a dip in the European market.

From October to December, operating income of world number two sector stood at seven billion Swedish kronor (791 million) while analysts had forecast of 7.2 billion, according to Reuters.

The last quarter of 2010, Volvo had generated operating profit of five billion crowns. 

After enjoying the full recovery of demand in 2010 and during most of 2011, European manufacturers of heavy trucks must now deal with the crisis of sovereign debt in the euro area and fears of a slowdown in global economic activity.

"We maintain our assessment that the market 'Europe of 29' will be about 220,000 trucks in 2012. We anticipate a slow start to the year and a gradual improvement, "the group said in a statement

." We maintain our forecast of continued growth of the North American market at about 250,000 trucks in 2012, "he adds

…… The … backlog fell 7% in the fourth quarter, but the fall is more dramatic in Europe where it has shrunk 24%, overshadowing the 22% increase observed in America The Swedish North

. thinks that the truck market is now stabilizing, albeit at a low level, and should pick up gradually over the years. 

Volvo shows and more optimistic than its competitor Scania, who warned this week that it would reduce its workforce and the volume of some of its investments in anticipation of weak demand in the first half of 2012.

The title Volvo opened up 1.4% to 92.00 crowns.

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.

Private sector employees in four will. And the public, who were spared, one will suffer. "In fairness", says Bercy, which hopes to save 200 million euros a year. A fourth day waiting period will be introduced for private sector employees.

A fourth day waiting period will be introduced for private sector employees on sick leave, the government said Tuesday, expecting a saving of 200 million euros for Social Security. Currently, time to which employees are compensated by health insurance is three days, often offset by the employer in large companies.

"In fairness," will also be established "one day waiting in the three public functions", announced in a joint statement the Ministers Budget Valérie Pécresse, Labour Xavier Bertrand and François Public Sauvadet.Earlier in the morning, Prime Minister Francois Fillon ruled "reasonable" before the UMP to create a day off for employees on sick leave.

If the introduction of a fourth day in the private sector is a regulatory measure, the measure for staff requires a statutory provision, the statement said. The ministers' per diem disease, representing 6.6 billion, growing at a rapid pace and difficult to justify (3.9% in 2010, after 5.1% in 2009). "

Ministers argue that "the bill initial funding of social security plans to change the replacement rate of subsistence allowances (DSA), enabling a lower expenditure of 220 million euros." Both measures are intended to achieve "an economy equivalent," explains Ms. Pécresse and MM. Bertrand and Sauvadet.

Coca-Cola, the world of soft drinks, will invest $ 2 billion (1.46 billion) in India by 2017 to develop its activities in this rapidly growing market.

This represents the total investment in India over the past 18 years by the U.S. company.

Coca-Cola India and its partners wish to invest in marketing and brand image, the extension of distribution networks and the development of production capacity, the company said in a statement.

Coca-Cola employs 25,000 people in India, whose growth is the second fastest in the developed economies, it added.

In September, French investors withdrew more money from their life insurance policies than it invested. Net outflows which had been observed only twice since 1997. Explanations.

Life insurance is on track to lose its status as a favorite investment of the French? They have in fact removed in September of 11.5 billion euros of their life insurance policies, for a collection of only 9.7 billion. Is a net outflow of 1.8 billion, according to the French Association of Insurance Companies (FFSA). The event is rare. "Not since the collapse of Lehman Brothers to record outflows over the collection in October and December 2008. Since 1997, and the creation of monthly indicators for this type of investment, there has been, taking into account the month of September 2011, three months of negative balance "ensures Philippe Crevel Secretary General of the circle of investors.Why is this?

The crisis … but not only

"Collapse of awards, signs of recession … The start of the flight of investors is linked to economic and market uncertainty. People do not know what will happen to their money in the long term, or insurance Life is a long-term investment "analysis Philippe Crevel. "The environment encourages individuals to anxiety out of stock or bonds" in Le Figaro said Pierre de Villeneuve, Chairman of the Committee of the FFSA life. But all is not the fault of the crisis. Some even think that its effect is marginal. "There is no effect of panic at all.The returns of life insurance are relatively stable and the people know, it remains very popular "advance Cyrille Chartier Kastler, president of consulting firm Facts & Figures, specializing in insurance.

A significant leak in the richest

He said the decline in collections is due to a growing disenchantment of investors richer for life insurance due to a reform put in place a year ago and a half. "Since then, private management contracts (over 120,000 euros of savings) have their performance limited warranty. The government did not want to be guaranteed a higher return to a type of life insurance rather than another, "he explains. Result, private management contracts, which accounted for 25 of the 120 billion collected by life insurance in 2009, are being "strongly reduced" as the president of Facts & Figures.

Demographic factors

"The aging population is also more and more retirees draw on their life insurance for current expenses, as some households in times of crisis," said Le Figaro Bernard Spitz, President of the FFSA. In addition, many of the contracts seem to arrive today at maturity, making them easy to buy. According to the circle of investors, 64% of the outstanding life insurance has over 8 years and 47% of contracts over 12 years.

Yields less attractive

In the 2000s, life insurance used the net returns of 5.3% on average. Ten years later, in late 2010, this rate is only 3.4%. And for 2011, Facts & Figures anticipates yields between 3 and 3.1%. If it remains very attractive, life insurance suffers from the decline continues, very reassuring for investors."Added to this the fears of an increase in the tax burden of its performance, related to the context of rigor. An increase in taxation would make life much less cost" analysis Philippe Crevel.

Competition for real estate

In the opinion of all experts, real estate appears to be the main competitor of insurance. It represents a safe haven, with high efficiency in the eyes of investors, including easier. "The stone is also good protection against inflation," says Cyrille Chartier Kastler. "In Paris, for example, 54% of transactions are not loans. Buyers are good money somewhere. They drain on the part of their life insurance" advance Philippe Crevel.

Then come the investment banking, including booklets boosted short-term."Banks in search of cash, have directed their clients to the bank books by offering rates comparable to those of life insurance, or even higher. The non-hazardous liquid savings has increased by more than 11 billion euros in the second quarter of 2009, "says the secretary general of the circle of investors.

"No event" or "end of the big time"?

However, the situation of companies and the sustainability of life insurance policies do not appear immediately threatened. When an individual agrees this type of contract, the company invests the money in currency values ​​or bond, they sell at the time of outflow. "The diversification of investments and their management over time in a supervisory narrow sector soundness guarantee" assures Bernard Spitz.

"And then, outflows of 1, 9 billion is a non-event," said Cyrille Chartier Kastler.It is true that in view of 1.367 trillion in assets of life insurance, it still represents a drop of water. Still, the rise of stocks slows over time. From December 2010 to September 2011, the total amount increased by 29 billion euros, against 72 billion over the same period a year earlier. "The great period of growth in life insurance is behind us," concludes Philippe Crevel.

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.

The giant consumer products Anglo-Dutch Unilever announced Friday the acquisition of 82% of the Russian cosmetics company Kalina Concern for 500 million euros.

Concern Kalina, Russia's number one segment of the cosmetics and hair care, is present mainly in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

"This will transform the business of Unilever in cosmetics in Russia (…) This will also strengthen and rebalance the portfolio of Unilever and its competitive position in Russia, an emerging market with great potential and the One of our priority countries, "he said in a statement the general manager of Unilever, Paul Polman.

The action Unilever, which gained 7% last month, advancing 1.6% to 20.88 pounds at 7:20 GMT, valuing the company at about 26 billion pounds (29.8 billion euros).

The U.S. economy has created far more jobs than expected in September and the new posts of previous months have been revised upwards, according to official statistics released Friday that could mitigate fears of a return to recession.

Last month, 103,000 non-farm jobs were created, according to the Labor Department, while economists on average expected 60,000 creations.

The unemployment rate was unchanged from a month to month to 9.1%, in line with analysts' expectations.

The right numbers in September are based in part on the reintroduction of 45,000 employees of Verizon in the number of jobs created, they were not in August because of a strike.By excluding these employees, 58,000 new jobs were created.

Statistics disappointing August, which reported zero job creation, for its part has been revised to bring out 57,000 new jobs. That of July was also revised upward to 127,000 against 85,000 previously.

Overall, the private sector has created 137,000 jobs, 100,000 against and 42,000 expected in August. The public sector has eliminated 34,000 jobs to him.

RELIEF

These employment figures are one more sign that the U.S. economy could avoid falling into recession despite a sluggish summer.Last week, the growth of U.S. gross domestic product in the second quarter was revised up to 1.3% against 1.0% in the first estimate.

Recent indicators of the manufacturing sector, business spending and auto sales leave now think the economy is doing better than expected third quarter.

Hourly wages have also increased by 4 cents in September after falling all the previous month.They then recorded their first decline since October 2009, pushing the savings to its lowest level for over a year and a half.

"The increase in job creation and revisions of the statistics is comforting and exciting to the market," said John Kilduff, partner of Capital hedge fund in New York Again.

"But it seems premature to use these numbers to say, regarding the economy in general, we are out of the woods," he tempers.

In September, the U.S. economy has eliminated 13,000 manufacturing jobs, after having destroyed in August 4000.

Some economists fear that the debt crisis will derail the U.S. recovery, not a fear expressed Thursday by U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

"We're still not at a job that can bring down the unemployment rate, which remains a key concern important to the economy," warns Ellen Zentner, economist at Nomura Securities in New York.

The economy must grow by at least 2.5% per year and create jobs 150.00 per month to prevent the unemployment rate to rise.

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 ruling coalition in Slovakia will have to overhaul the government or call early elections if it does not find a majority in parliament to ratify the reform of the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF), said Sunday the main opposition party.

The country, with only 5 million inhabitants, could hinder the ratification process of strengthening the powers of the Fund reform validated so far by 14 of the 17 countries in the euro area.

The center-right coalition of Prime Minister Iveta Radicova hard to achieve a parliamentary majority on this vote, which is expected by October 14, since one of the coalition parties, Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) is refuses to support.

"Either the government approves the EFSF and the coalition will do well by itself, or the ruling coalition is not able to make such a decision and will have to rely on the help of the opposition, but with consequences on the functioning of the ruling coalition, "said Robert Fico, Smer party leader, during a televised debate.

The Smer, which has nearly 40% approval rating in the polls, supports the reform of EFSF but refuses to reach out to the coalition.Robert Fico said that it would overhaul the government or call new elections if it failed to unite.

"We are ready to support the EFSF, but if we do, that means no more ruling coalition in Slovakia," said the former prime minister Iveta Radicova predecessor as head of government.